Penguins’ World Cup of Hockey: Finals

Here’s our latest project to help pass the time until the hockey season comes back, a fictional “World Cup of Hockey” by breaking up players who played for the Penguins to their respective national teams and seeing them vie for superiority and bragging rights.

We completed the group stage games last week with some polls, you can catch up with that right here.

Group A

(Standings are Win, OT Win, OT Loss, Loss)

Mario Lemieux’s Team Canada (3-0-0-0)
Team USA (1-1-0-1)
Team World (0-1-0-2)
Team Finland (0-0-2-1)

Group B

Sidney Crosby’s Team Canada (2-0-1-0)
Team Russia (2-0-0-1)
Team Czech Republic (1-1-0-1)
Team Sweden (0-0-0-3)

Here’s how the Group Stage ended up with Lemieux Canada, Russia, Crosby Canada and Czech Republic making the final four.

Via votes, the semifinals ended as such:

Lemieux Canada 7 - Russia 5

A high-powered game swung both ways with the Russians’ skill pushing Mario’s Team Canada for the very first time in the tournament. In the end, the weakest spot on the ice was the Russian netminder and Lemieux and Iginla as two hall of famers just wouldn’t be denied and lead their version of Canada to the championship game.

Crosby Canada 6 - Czech Republic 4

The Cinderella story of the Czechs also came to an end at the hands of the Sidney Crosby led Canadians in a close, high-spirited game that featured a lot of offense. The Pens’ have been blessed to have a lot of skill over the years, but some of the defensemen had trouble keeping up.

Now, we’re down to the finals. First, we’ll check out the bronze medal game. It will be a European flair as the rival Russians and Czechs. Who ya got?

And for the main event, it’s Crosby vs. Lemieux in the championship. On the wings, remember, Sid has Mark Recchi and Rick Tocchet. Lemieux has Iginla and Chris Kunitz. Defensively, Mario has Trevor Daley and Kris Letang, to go up against Paul Coffey and Larry Murphy for the Crosby Canadians. Marc-Andre Fleury is in net for Team No. 66 and Ken Wregget takes the crease for Crosby.

Who ya got on this one?