USA suffers shocking upset, Canada and Sweden advance
Four games were played on the same sheet of ice in Edmonton on Wednesday as the World Junior Championships opened with the quarterfinals. All five Blackhawks prospects made the playoff rounds, but only two advanced after Wednesday.
Sweden is moving forward
In the second game on the schedule (but the first game including a Blackhawks prospect), Latvia gave Sweden absolutely everything they could handle for 60 minutes. They were overwhelming underdogs coming into the game but they hung in long enough that there was a lot of stress on the Swedish bench.
In the end, however, Sweden was able to rise with a 2-1 victory. Blackhawks prospect Victor Stjernborg was named best player of the game for Sweden after winning 10 of 12 games in 14:52. He had a great game all around even without a shot on net to his credit. The dominant performance on Wednesday moved Stjernborg up to 59.09 percent in the faceoff circle in five games in the tournament.
Canada rolls
The third game on the slate featured one of the top two seeds, Canada, against Switzerland. Logan Stankoven scored twice and added an assist to win best player for Canada as the home team won 6-3. Tyson Foerster and Ronan Seeley were the other Canadians with multi-point efforts; they had two each.
Ethan Del Mastro played a physical game but was on the ice for three of the nine goals scored – including the first two for the Swiss. He was not credited with a shot on net and was minus-one in 11:24 of ice time.
USA shocked by the Czech Republic
And finally, since the IIHF apparently doesn’t care about my sleep patterns this past week, the USA hit the ice against the Czech Republic in today’s final. The complexion of the game changed early on when Luke Hughes suffered an apparent leg injury. He went to the room for a while to finish the first period but came back for the second. Despite being back, Hughes was clearly not 100 percent.
The Czech Republic played two perfect periods. They beat the Americans up when they had the puck and didn’t make a mistake. Brett Berard took a terrible major penalty and got the goal three minutes into the third period, but the U.S. survived in part because the Czech Republic drew a penalty of its own. The U.S. scored when they got a five-minute power play to pull within one midway through the final frame.
Unfortunately, a terrible, blind pass by Hughes was cleared with the USA net empty and the Czech Republic scored in the empty cage to close the books. Matt Coronato had a great look at a wide-open cage in the final minute but it was redirected over the net. And the Czech Republic pulled off the huge upset, sending home the previously undefeated USA.
Landon Slaggerts line of Thomas Bordeleau and Carter Mazur was on the ice for each of the Czech Republic’s first three goals. However, Slaggert parked himself in front of the net and picked up an assist on the second goal for the USA. He finished the tournament with two goals and four assists in five games.
Dominic James, who entered the quarterfinals ranked second in the entire tournament on the dot and won 65.22 percent of his matches, won seven of 12 on the dot and put two shots on net. He skated 13:06 in the loss but had a nice tournament.
And Wyatt Kaiser were elevated to the top defensive pairing late in the first period when Hughes was injured. He went 17:17 in the game with two shots on net and finished the night minus-one.
The top three players in the tournament for the United States were Mazur, Hughes and Bordeleau.