Charlie Lindgren named player of game for Team USA at World Championship in 1-0 elimination loss to Czechia

Charlie Lindgren and Ryan Leonard’s successful seasons are officially over.

Team USA was ousted in the World Championship quarterfinals by Czechia in a 1-0 nail-biter on Thursday afternoon. Czechia, playing in front of their home fans, got a power-play goal from Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha 6:39 into the second period to power them to victory.

Despite giving up the goal, Lindgren, who made 27 saves, was named the United States’ player of the game after the loss.

Outside of Zacha’s goal, Lindgren was impressive and kept the US in a game where they were being out-chanced early and couldn’t find the back of the net at the other end. Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal pitched a 36-save shutout for Czechia.

Lindgren made two starts at the tournament, going 1-1 with a 2.03 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. He took over the starting reins from Detroit Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Alex Nedeljkovic after the team’s original starter, Alex Lyon, was knocked out via injury early in the group stage.

The 30-year-old backstop turned down an initial invite to play at the tournament but changed his mind a few weeks later.

Leonard dressed for Thursday’s game but did not receive a single shift from head coach John Hynes. Overall, he got into six of the team’s eight games, primarily as an extra forward. Hynes gave him just 5:37 of ice time per game and he recorded one assist.

The Boston College standout got into one more game (6) than the other two young, college forwards on the roster, Will Smith (5) and Gavin Brindley (5). He also recorded an assist in the team’s lone tune-up game before the tournament began.

Czechia now moves on to play Sweden in the semifinals after the Swedes downed Finland 2-1 in overtime on Thursday. With USA’s loss and Martin Fehervary’s loss with Slovakia earlier on Thursday, the Capitals no longer have any representation at this year’s tournament.