There is a restart of the Junior World Cup. Slovakia is waiting for the start of a big derby
Eight months ago, we had a junior world champion in ice hockey. It didn’t happen that way. However, the prestigious tournament will get a second chance in the coming days. It will restart on Tuesday.
At the end of December, the tournament paid for the pandemic and in the end, the spread of the disease did not finish. However, the International Federation did not want to give it up and finally decided to hold it in the summer – from August 9 to 20.
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There are several changes compared to the original tournament. First of all, the venue will be only Edmonton, in which Rogers Place with a capacity of over 18,300 spectators will play all matches. In the winter, games were also played in Red Deer.
The geopolitical situation also caused us to lose one of the best – Russia was replaced by Latvians. The compositions of the groups have also changed slightly. Slovakia will be in Group A with the aforementioned Latvia, home team Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic.
It is with the rival from across the Morava River that Ivan Feneš’s men will start the entire tournament. The derby against the Czech Republic awaits us already on Tuesday at 20:00 our time. Slovakia will play other matches against Canada (12.08. 00:00), Latvia (13.08. 00:00) and Finland (14.08. 20:00). RTVS Šport also broadcasts live.
The young Slovaks, who won against Germany in the warm-up, but lost against Switzerland, submitted the last days before the championship in preparation for the first match. They last met the Czech Republic in the tournament in December 2015, when they lost 0:2. In January of the same year, they won 3:0. However, the majority of duels in history were played by the Czechs, who even now are considered by bookmakers to be the favorites for the duel.
“We focused on the Czech Republic, watched some videos, others are waiting for us. Power plays will be key. In the first warm-up match against the Germans, we were successful, against the Swiss we struggled a bit. But we hone them in training and I believe that it will be felt in the match.” defenseman Rayen Petrovicky, who will be the team’s captain, told SZĽH.
“Both preliminaries showed that we are an excellent team. We steeled ourselves brilliantly against the Germans in the third period and it was a huge game. The same against the Swiss. We almost equalized and took the duel to our side. We showed that we stick together.”
The second group consists of Sweden, the United States of America, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The group stage will end on August 15 and the quarter-finals will take place after a one-day break. On August 19, the semi-final duels are scheduled, and on August 20, the fight for bronze and the grand final.
The biggest favorite of the tournament is home country Canada led by the young phenomenon Connor Bedard. Among its biggest competitors are the United States of America, which defends the title, Finland and Sweden.
Unlike at the turn of the year, the tournament will include fewer young stars and that’s only because of Russia’s absence. Many young people did not take advantage of the opportunity to represent their homeland and preferred to spend the summer preparing for the new year. However, this gives a chance to other youngsters and still gives the conditions for an interesting tournament.
You can find its breakdown here: https://msj2022.slovaknhl.sk/rozpis.php