Captain McCabe leads way as Americans cruise past Canada

Jake McCabe scored a pair of first period goals Thursday to lead the USA past Canada 5-1 to advance to the gold medal game at the 2013 World Junior Championship. The Wisconsin sophomore, who also added an assist, was named Team USA's player of the game following the superb three-point effort.

McCabe scored the game's first goal at 7:18 when he took a Riley Barber pass in the high slot and wired a shot through a maze of bodies past Canadian netminder Malcolm Subban.

A scorer of just five goals through 42 career NCAA games, Captain McCabe gathered his second of the afternoon on a similar play at 16:02 when he again stepped into the slot and beat Subban through a screen to give the Americans the 2-0 lead.

USA stormed out of the gates in the middle frame, getting their third goal of the game just 2:58 in when McCabe cleared a puck out of danger from the USA crease right to the stick of Bosron College standout Johnny Gaudreau, who cruised into the Canadian zone and made a nice toedrag before wristing a shot past Subban to make it 3-0.



Just like the American team as a whole, McCabe has shown tremendous game-over-game growth en route to collecting three goals and six points through USA's six tourney games. His plus-seven rating is tied with Seth Jones ('13) for the team lead. With an emotional win over their continental rival behind them, USA will ride a wave of momentum into Saturday's gold medal game against the winner of Thursday's Russia-Sweden tilt.