USA plays for gold after Troy Terry’s shootout heroics vs. Russia (Video)

An American skater eliminates Russia from an international hockey tournament, playing the hero with multiple brilliant goals in an overtime shootout.

Sound familiar?

In 2014, it was T.J. Oshie in the Sochi Olympics. In 2017, it was Troy Terry in the U20 IIHF World Junior Hockey semifinals, scoring three times to send the Americans to the gold medal game on Thursday night, against the winner of the Canada vs. Sweden showdown in the other semifinal.

Terry scored three goals against Russian goaltending star Ilya Samsonov, including the game-winner in the seventh round of the shootout for a 4-3 win on Wednesday afternoon in Montreal. It was Team USA’s first ever win against Russia in the medal round of the World Junior championship, having previously gone 0-for-7.

The Russians had a 1-0 lead in the shootout on Dennis Guryanov’s goal past Tyler Parsons when Terry snapped the puck through Samsonov’s five-hold to tie it. Russia’s Mikhail Vorobyov gave his team the lead again, only to see Jeremy Bracco match it with another five-hold goal against Samsonov.

The shootout went to a sixth round thanks to Parsons’ save on Kirill Kaprizov, who had eight goals in the tournament. Guryanov scored. Terry patiently matched him with an amazing goal in which he waited out Samsonov.

Parsons got a glove on Alexander Polunin’s shot that deflected off the crossbar. Then it was Terry, again, putting the game away with a “shootout hat trick”:

An Anaheim Ducks fifth-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft (148 overall), Terry is a sophomore at the University of Denver. He’s also a Denver native. He won gold with Team USA at the 2015 IIHF World U18 Championships.

Much like how Jonathan Quick became a footnote to T.J. Oshie in that Sochi Olympic game, don’t sleep on how well Parsons played in the shootout to get the Americans into that final round.

The teams tied 3-3 in regulation in an exciting game, before playing an incredibly intense 10-minute overtime that also ended deadlocked. That included this awesome save:

The Russians tied the game at 6:04 of the third period, 3-3, on Dennis Guryanov’s second goal of the game. Kirill Kaprizov and had the other goal for Russia. Colin White had two goals and Luke Kunin had the other for the Americans.

The U.S. is trying to win its fourth WJC gold medal in history, having captured them in 2004, 2010 and 2013.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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