Lying in their beds on New Year's Eve, Canadian world junior roommates Alex Pietrangelo and Brandon Kozun had to revisit their thrilling 5-4 shootout victory over the United States before getting some shuteye.
Pietrangelo tied the game on a short-handed goal with about four minutes remaining, and Kozun won it with a shootout tally on goaltender Jack Campbell.
“I asked him: ‘How nervous were you?'” Pietrangelo said. “He said: ‘I wasn't that nervous.' And I said: ‘You're lying to me. I know you're lying to me.'”
Unless he was lying again yesterday, Kozun said no nasty nationalistic words were directed his way by the American team. The 19-year-old was born in California and began playing hockey in Los Angeles before moving to Calgary when he was 10.
Kozun still carries two passports, and he could have easily earned a spot on the U.S. team competing at the 2010 world junior championship. Instead, the dual citizen chose the more difficult path of trying to earn a job on the Canadian team, and on Thursday he became an Uncle Sam slayer.
“It's pretty great that he decided to come here,” Canadian head coach Willie Desjardins said. “He had a choice, and he didn't have any guarantees, and yet he still picked coming this way. That says a lot about a guy, that he would go someplace without any guarantees. I've got a lot of respect for him.”
Desjardins addressed the choice Kozun had to make when the Canadian team assembled for pretournament preparations. Naturally, that led to some good-natured teases from his teammates, who wondered if he was more eagle than beaver, more Stars and Stripes than Maple Leaf.
“We give it to him,” Pietrangelo said. “We certainly gave it to him [Thursday] night. But I think he made the right choice, that's for sure.”
Minus Kozun's difficult decision, Canada would be playing in a quarter-final game against Finland today, instead of receiving a bye into the semi-finals tomorrow. Canada will play the winner of today's Russia-Switzerland quarter-final.
Kozun never took up stereotypical California sports such as surfing or skateboarding, and followed in the footsteps of two older brothers who played hockey. Other than temperatures that are preceded by “a dash,” he said life wasn't too different in Calgary, where mother Donna is from, than in L.A.
“I've been living in Canada for a long time, and it has been the later years of my life,” Kozun said. “So I kind of feel like I grew up as a player in Canada, and I kind of feel more Canadian than American.”
Kozun said his American father, Michael, understood his decision, and he may yet play in his native city. The diminutive winger was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the sixth round last year.
Kozun made it onto Desjardins's shootout list – and in the pressure-packed third and final slot – thanks to an internal competition at Canada's selection camp last month. The group was split in two and told to pick four shooters a side. The losers had to do push-ups.
“We watched that day for which guys had the strongest move, not necessarily who scored,” Desjardins said. “He had two really good moves in that shootout, so we decided that he would be the guy.”
Though he played for a California club called the West Valley Wolves, Kozun's minor hockey career flourished with the Calgary Royals of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The 5-foot-7 forward, who has 63 points in 33 games with the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League this season, said he doesn't have any friends on the U.S. team, only acquaintances. Though nothing about his conflicted citizenship was directed his way during the game, there had to have been some broken hearts in Colorado Springs, home of USA Hockey.
“He knew where he wanted to be, and he knew where hockey lived,” Canadian forward Jordan Eberle said. “Good on him for finishing them off like that.”
