Game Recaps: December 26, 2017
By BuffaloWorldJuniors.com Staff
Posted 12/26/17
USA 9 - Denmark 0
By Ryan Evans
Powered by its lethal and varied offensive attack, Team USA began its IIHF World Junior Championship title defense in convincing fashion in Tuesday’s tournament-opener, routing Denmark 9-0 at KeyBank Center.
The win was the United States’ 11th straight in tournament-opening games as it showed off the attacking skill and depth that makes it one of the prognosticators’ favorites to re-claim gold in Buffalo. Seven different players found the back of the net in the victory and 15 registered at least one point.
“That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to establish ourselves,” USA head coach Bob Motzko said. “We scored some goals and we feel good about ourselves.”
“There’s anxiety when you’re coming into your first game, but we won the darn thing and it feels good.”
The Americans roared out of the gates and staked themselves to a three-goal, 3-0, lead before the opening period even hit its halfway point. The quick start included a standout individual effort from forward Casey Mittelstadt as he followed his own rebound, stripped the goaltender and converted a backhand for his first of two goals on the night en route to U.S. Player of the Game honors.
“It was nice to come out and score some goals. Anytime you can do that it makes it a little bit more fun,” Mittelstadt said. “We have a really skilled team at forward and on defense, so it is a lot of fun to play hockey with these guys.”
Mittelstadt, who is a Sabres prospect, called it a “cherry on top” to be able to put on a show in front of the Buffalo faithful as he exhibited the playmaking and finishing ability that made him the eighth overall pick in last summer’s NHL Draft.
“We all saw his stick handling ability,” Motzko said. “It is great to get a guy like that off with a couple of goals. For a skill guy, there is nothing like scoring a few goals to feel like you’re in the tournament.”
The USA’s first period fireworks were capped by forward Kailer Yamamoto and Mittelstadt’s second, which pushed its advantage to 5-0 after one period and allowed it to shift into cruise control over the final 40 minutes.
The Americans added a pair in the second, including a successful penalty shot from forward Kieffer Bellows, and another two in the third to round out its scoring.
Forwards Mittelstadt (2+0), Bellows (2+0), Patrick Harper (1+1), Max Jones (1+1) and Josh Norris (0+2) and defensemen Quinn Hughes (0+2) and Andrew Peeke (0+2) all notched multi-point efforts in the win.
After skating to its best-ever World Juniors finish at last year’s tournament, Denmark will be disappointed by the lopsided result to begin its follow up. The Danes managed just 17 shots on goal—none of which seriously threatened U.S. goaltender Joseph Woll as he notched the shutout—and they were unable to mount much of anything on three power play opportunities.
As Woll battles with Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman for playing time in Team USA’s crease, it is worth nothing that the goaltender who started the tournament opener also got the nod in the gold medal game in each of the United States’ four previous runs to a World Juniors title.
Both teams will continue Group A play on Thursday at KeyBank Center. Denmark will match up against Finland at noon and the Americans will wrap up the day against Slovakia at 8 p.m.
Canada 4 – Finland 2
By Aaron Cheris
Playing in front of a favorable crowd, Canada showed why it’s a favorite to medal with a strong 4-2 win over Finland at KeyBank Center on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re happy with the win. To be starting against a good team and getting the win, we know from here we’ll get better,” Canada coach Dominique Ducharme said. “We got better as the game went on and we’re going to be even better tomorrow.”
Early on, it was Canada that seized the momentum by killing a penalty five minutes in. Shortly after the penalty expired, Boris Katchouk muscled through the Finland defense, got the puck in the offensive end, and tucked a backhand past goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on a breakaway to open the scoring. The referees reviewed the goal on video, but it stood to give Canada a 1-0 lead 5:34 in.
“They called it a goal on the ice and it was definitely going to be hard to overturn it,” Katchouk said of the review. “The puck was in motion and going toward the net and good things happen when you put the puck toward the net.”
Seconds later, Finland captain Jusso Valimaki took a slashing penalty, and the Canadians capitalized. Jordan Kyrou sent the puck to the net, Taylor Raddish dug it free in the crease, and Sam Steel jumped on the rebound to score a power-play goal, increasing the lead to 2-0 at 6:01, giving Canada two goals in 27 seconds.
“We said we couldn’t give the game back to them,” Katchouk said. “We had to keep the momentum going our way the whole game and that’s what we did.”
Finland answered at 12:19 as Valimaki’s point shot was stopped, but the rebound came right to Aleksi Hemponiemi, who scored into a vacant net to cut the Canadian lead in half.
It only took Canada 33 second to regain the two-goal lead as Victor Mete led the rush up ice, and Jonah Gadjovic’s pass found Drake Batherson, who buried his shot past Luukkonen to give the Canadians a 3-1 lead after one period, despite being outshot 12-7.
In an evenly played second period, it was the Finns who struck first. On the power play, defenseman Henri Jokiharju’s slap shot deflected off a Canadian defender and past goalie Carter Hart to cut the deficit to 3-2 at 27:31.
Less than five minutes later, Katchouk stole the puck in the defensive zone and led the Canadians up ice. His pass deflected to Raddysh, who slapped the bouncing puck home to give Canada a 4-2 lead after two.
“I luckily got a shot, it was a knuckleball. It just bent down low over the goalie’s pad,” Raddysh said. “You’ve got to take goals like that and that’s what happens when you put the puck on net.”
With Finland pushing in the third period, the Canadians got the save of the day, but it didn’t come from Hart. With the puck rolling toward the goal line after a scramble in the crease, Canadian defenseman Cal Foote dove and cleared the puck off the goal line with his hand, saving a goal for his team with less than 10 minutes to go.
“That was unreal. I’d never seen anything like that,” Raddysh said of Foote’s save. “That was a big part of the game. It was a 4-2 lead and it could have been a good turning point.”
For Canada, Hart stopped 29 of 39 shots as Katchouk and Raddysh recorded multi-point games. Luukkonen made 28 saves on 32 shots for Finland.
Canada is back in action on Tuesday night vs. Slovakia at 7 p.m. at KeyBank Center. Finland plays Denmark in the first game at KeyBank Center at noon on Wednesday.
Czech Republic 5 – Russia 4
By Jim Christopher
The 42nd annual IIHF World Junior Championship kicked off today in Buffalo, N.Y. where the Czech Republic held off a furious late comeback attempt by Russia to win 5-4 in the first game of the tournament.
Martin Necas of the Czech Republic and Alexi Polodyan of Russia traded goals early on in the first period, and then Ostap Safin was able to notch his first goal of the tournament to put the Czechs up 2-1.
Safin showed great hand eye coordination by knocking a bouncing puck out of the air right at the top of the crease. He is expected to be an important part of the offensive production for the Czech Republic.
“He’s a sniper and he’s a shark,” Czech Republic head coach Filip Pesan said. “He’s a big strong guy with a great shot and he knows his role and hopefully he keeps helping the team like he did tonight.”
The Czech Republic was able to capitalize on two Russian penalties, with Necas scoring a power-play goal in the first and Filip Zadina adding one early in the second.
Coming into the tournament, Russia had struggled on the penalty kill. Allowing several goals shorthanded during pre-tournament play, the Czech Republic knew that would be a weakness and game planned towards it.
“We really worked on special teams every practice,” Pesan said. “It’s going to be the difference between teams in this tournament.”
The Czech Republic endured a scare midway through the second period when forward Filip Chytil took a helmet to the nose and left the ice bleeding.
“I didn’t see [the Russian player] and we hit each other and I hit him with my nose,” Chytil said. “I don’t know if I have a broken nose but I wanted to play because I play for the Czech Republic and my country.”
Chytil scored shortly after returning to the game from the hit to extend the Czech Republic lead to 4-2.
Once a Marek Zachar breakaway attempt was thwarted and Ostap was unable to put home the rebound, the third time was the charm as Chytil followed the play and was able to score on the second rebound attempt.
“After the pre-tournament games against Canada and Finland where we lost both games we wanted to play our game with our system and it’s the reason why we won,” Chytil said.
Despite only having five shots on goal in the first period, the Czech Republic and Russia were tied at two after twenty minutes of play. Russia was doing a good job early on putting bodies in shooting lanes and not giving the Czech’s much open ice. It didn’t seem to be a cause of concern due to the efficiency and nature of the shots the Czech Republic were taking.
“It’s not just about forcing everyone from the beginning of the game,” Pesan said. “We just wanted to stay organized and it happened.”
The Russians would not go quietly, however. Despite being down 5-2 late in the third, they kept the pressure coming and managed to score two goals in the final three minutes from Artur Kayumov and Vladislav Syomin to make things exciting for the fans in attendance, but nerve racking for their opponents.
“It wasn’t really easy for the team or for me,” Pesan said. “But we tried to focus on the way we played and we knew that the Russian guys are extremely skilled and the team has extreme power but I think we had a good whole game.
The Russians have a chance to bounce back on Thursday when they take on Switzerland at 2 p.m. at Harborcenter while the Czech Republic will try to keep their momentum going when they take on Sweden at 4 p.m. at KeyBank Center on Thursday.
Sweden 6 – Belarus 1
By Alec Gearty
Sweden waited nearly a period-and-a-half to gain a feeling of comfort, but when it did, Belarus paid the price.
Behind its high-potent offense, Sweden defeated Belarus 6-1 in the team’s preliminary round matchup at the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship at HarborCenter.
Elias Pettersson opened the scoring for Sweden in the first period. Sweden assumed much of the first period’s momentum but Belarus, who finished in 11th place at last year’s tournament, answered right back courtesy of Yegor Sharangovich, who put Sweden in an uncomfortable position, by scoring a shorthanded goal to tie the game.
Sweden outshot Belarus 10-2 in the first, but wasn’t able to get more than one goal past Belarus’ goaltender Andrei Grishenko. It was to be expected in the first period of Sweden’s opening round game.
“The first period in a tournament — it’s tough every time I think the first period in the tournament is always the same,” Sweden captain Lias Andersson said. “It’s a little bit shaky for many guys who are a little bit nervous but I think we figured that out in the second [period] and keep pushing.
“I think the first period in the tournament is always the same.”
Andersson led all skaters with two goals and is a goal shy of matching his total output from the 2017 tournament.
As the game progressed, Sweden found its comfort level. Possession fell in their favor the majority of the time while containing Belarus’ offense.
Then Sweden attacked.
Halfway through the second period, Sweden scored three times in a span of 2:21. Alexander Nylander fed a pass to the perfectly placed Erik Brannstrom to break the tie.
Forwards Glenn Gustafsson and Jesper Boqvist scored 45 seconds apart to give Sweden a comfortable lead.
Nylander finished the afternoon with two assists.
“I think I got better throughout the game,” Nylander said. “I didn’t really have a good first period, but the second and third period were a lot better. It’s good that we got better throughout the game.”
The Swedes were relaxed by the final period, Andersson felt that they “dominated in the third period.” Sweden outshot Belarus 36-9 while adding two power-play goals to its tournament resume.
Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 8 of 9 shots as his quiet afternoon contributed to the crucial first win.
Now, the team will have a day off before they resume action against the Czech Republic, who defeated Russia on Tuesday afternoon.
Belarus must quickly rebound as it faces Switzerland, who will play its first game of the tournament on Wednesday.
