U-18 World Hockey Championship Roundup: USA, Finland Still perfect; Canada, Sweden Winner
Dominant second half does the trick for the United States
The Czech Republic would do first, but five unanswered goals helped the United States win 6-2 to remain undefeated.
The Americans now have 14 goals in two games, most of all teams after the first weekend’s action with wins against Canada and now the Czech Republic.
But it did not start well for the Americans. On a penalty kick at 12:01, Jiri Kulich scored to beat Tyler Muszelik for the lone marker for the first.
Fortunately for the Americans, who are considered the favorites to win gold, a second period with four goals put the match out of reach. Isaac Howard scored his tournament-leading fifth goal of the tournament after going around the Czech zone unchallenged before releasing a wrist to beat Michael Schnattinger. Jimmy Snuggerud and Ryan Leonard would score exactly 30 seconds apart at 28:26 and 28:56, respectively, to suddenly take full control of the game.
Rutger McGroarty’s first goal of the match at 32:37 made it 4-1 before the second break of the match, only because Logan Cooley made it 5-1 at 48:35. Lukas Plos’ goal in 52:35 gave the Czech Republic some speed, but McGroarty scored again on the next shift to put the match out of reach.
Canada stops Germany to win the first game
After a crushing 8-3 loss to the USA, Canada looked good against Germany and won 8-3 themselves.
Canada could not score in an early five-minute powerplay, but Grayden Siepmann would open the scoring at 7:16 with a shielded shot from the spot. He then helped put David Goyette up 2-0 at 7:40 to put Canada safely in the lead.
Canada doubled its advantage in the other. Connor Bedard scored his second goal of the tournament after taking Adam Fantilli’s feed in 4:36, and Brayden Schuurman scored on the next good Canadian points gravel and made it 4-0.
But Germany did not intend to back down without giving its fans something to cheer for. At 31:58, Julien Lutz’s shot put traffic and Nolan Lalonde to 4-1. Then, three minutes later, Roman Kechter scored on power play after knocking in Lutz’s shot to make it 4-2 to create fear in Canada’s eyes.
A powerplay goal from Lutz 25 seconds into the third narrowed the gap to 4-3, but Canada’s explosion in the third period lifted things a bit. Bedard scored a couple of goals just over a minute apart and Matthew Wood scored 7-3, giving Canada three goals in 3:18 play before the frame hit the six-minute mark to end the match.
Sweden’s strong third period results in a 6-2 win
Sweden did not lead until the third period, but when they finally came back into the match, they came out to look strong with a 6-2 win over Switzerland.
The match needed almost 31 minutes to break the deadlock. Antoine Guignard made it 1-0 on power-play after his shot was aimed by Swedish defender Dennis Good Bogg, who stepped on the puck and slid it into his own net in an attempt to regain balance.
Less than two minutes later, the Swedes fought back. This time, Oliver Pettersson found Leo Carlsson who struck in all alone, and Carlsson made no mistake on a quick shot to make it 1-1. The draw lasted until the last minute of the second, where Gregory Weber went in close and regained the Swiss advantage on the way into the second break.
Sweden needed a big third period, and they got it. Jonathan Lekkerimaki equalized the match once again on a break goal of 43:04, only because Carlsson scored again just over a minute later. Noah Ostlund and Fabian Wagner made one each and Lekkeriamki added another to place Sweden at six to complete the comeback.
Finland prevents other Latvian shocks
Finland would not fall victim to what plagued Sweden on Saturday, when they beat Latvia 4-1 to stay perfect through this weekend’s action in Germany.
Latvia could not pick up speed from its huge win against Sweden on Saturday. Thankfully, all eight teams take the playoffs, so a loss does not hurt them in that regard.
Despite a 1-1 draw on the way into the initial break, the match was strongly in Finland’s control. Kasper Halttunen’s wrist would beat Lindards Feldbergs at 11:56 after some good opportunities for the Finns. But Dan Locmeli’s penalty fight with less than two minutes left meant that the match would be tied to a piece on the way into the first break.
The second period was where things fell apart for Latvia. Goals two minutes apart from Jere Lassila and Elmeri Laakso led the Finns to a point where Latvia could not keep up. Kasper Halttunen made a back-breaker at 44:33 to secure the victory, with Topias Leinonen stopping every shot he encountered in the regulation for the victory.
Remarks:
– Otto Hokkanen was suspended for a match after a hit from behind in the match against Switzerland on Saturday. He missed the match against Latvia but is entitled to return against Sweden on Tuesday.
Dominik Petr was forced to leave the Czech Republic’s match on a stretcher after a difficult fall after a hit from Ryan Leonard. Leonard tried to get up on his own, but in the end he could not put pressure on his feet. The Czech coach Jakub Petr, Dominik’s father, said that Dominik has a lower body injury and that there is no timeline for his return.
Germany’s Moritz Elias was thrown out of the match against Canada just nine seconds into the match after hitting Josh Filmon in the head. A shutdown is expected.