Cal Petersen was back in goal for Team USA and the LA Kings netminder did not disappoint, shutting out Kazakhstan en route to a 3-0 win.
After opening the 2021 World Championship on the losing end, Team USA has really found its footing. After a convincing 5-1 victory over Canada on Sunday, the Americans were back in action on Tuesday as LA Kings netminder Cal Petersen was back in goal. The end result was a good one for Team USA.
Playing in his first game since his country’s opener against Finland, Cal Petersen was on his game against Kazakhstan. Although he wasn’t tested much, the native of Waterloo, IA, came through when his team needed him most. Petersen made 18 saves for the shutout as Team USA, with the help of Kings teammate Trevor Moore, won by a 3-0 count.
Petersen spoke with the media after the victory, touching on his efforts, specifically staying sharp despite not being very busy.
“I mean, just staying in the game making sure whether it’s communicating or anytime I can handle the puck or something like that, just doing little things to stay in the game,” Petersen said of staying active in Tuesday’s game. “Just trying to help out the defense, make sure when I’m coming, I’m talking and communicating a lot. There sometimes challenging games playing because you don’t get a lot of shots to stay in it and, as you can see, it was kind of relatively close.”
The 26-year-old was nonetheless happy with his performance but overall, he’s thrilled with how progressively better Team USA has gotten since the beginning of the tournament. Tuesday’s win was a good example of this.
“We handled it really well and played the way we needed to play and locked it down,” Petersen added. “So, didn’t really give them much.”
If there is even such a thing as a goaltending controversy in a short-term tournament like this, Team USA may have one. After all, Jake Oettinger was solid on Sunday against Team Canada and Petersen didn’t give an inch in his outing on Tuesday. In the big picture, though, the goaltending performances are paramount for the Americans’ success thus far and the goaltending duo has just been doing what’s been asked of them thus far.
As for the remaining Kings contingent, they were impressive, as well.
Trevor Moore added to his success in Riga, scoring a goal and adding an assist on Tuesday. Defensemen Matt Roy and Christian Wolanin, while neither got on the scoresheet against Kazakhstan, were solid defensively en route to the victory.
With the victory, Team USA improves to 2-0-0-1 at the 2021 Worlds. Up next for the Americans is the host country, Latvia, on Friday at 9:15 am ET (6:15 am PT).