Game Recaps: December 27, 2017

By BuffaloWorldJuniors.com Staff

Posted 12/27/17

Canada 6 - Slovakia 0

By Alec Gearty

 

With his family watching from the crowd, Canadian goaltender Colton Point made sure to put on a spectacle on Wednesday night. Point, who made his first start of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship, stopped all 20 shots he faced in Canada’s 6-0 win over Slovakia.

 

“It was an awesome experience,” Point said. “I tried to make the key saves that I had to. It’s always awesome accomplishing a life-long dream.”

 

Point’s family completed the nearly five-hour journey from North Bay, Ont. to Buffalo to witness the goaltender keep Canada’s undefeated record in tact. With some help from his offense, Point’s shutout failed to be in any real danger. He faced a combined six shots in the final period but according to Point, “You’ve got to treat them all equally.”

 

Sam Steel opened the scoring for Canada 3:39 seconds into the first period. He was the fortunate recipient of Cale Makar’s blocked shot as the puck fell onto Steel’s stick and took advantage of the misplaced David Hrenak. The goal marked Steel’s second in as many games.

 

“I was hoping it would come off the pad, but I think it hit a skate in front,” Steel said. “It found me in a good spot. I’ll take it.”

 

Despite outshooting Slovakia 13-6 in the opening period, Canada maintained a slight 1-0 lead. Hrenak, who was also making his first start, stopped 46 shots for Slovakia but he credits the ultimate demise to the team’s lack of discipline.

 

“It was a tough game for us,” Hrenak said. “I would say we got a pretty good start then we gave them so many power plays.”

 

Slovakia was penalized six times throughout the game. Canada converted on three of those instances. It allowed Jordan Kyrou, who led all skaters with three points, to create what may be the most impressive goal of the tournament thus far.

 

Kyrou danced his way around defenseman Erik Smolka to extend Canada’s lead. It “just happened” for the Toronto native, who now has four points through the tournament’s first two games.

 

After Kyrou’s tally, Canada added a pair of goals. Forward Jonah Gadjovich , who scored twice on Wednesday, backhanded Canada’s rebound into the back of the net and Taylor Raddysh finished off Kyrou’s pass to give Canada a 4-0 entering the final period. Canada later added two more goals in the third.

 

Canada faces no shortage of scoring options through the team’s first two games. Five different players scored for Canada against Slovakia and they continue to prove its offensive depth is one not to take lightly.

 

“From the day that it was assembled, that’s what I thought our strength was,” Steel said. “Any line can score and I think we’ve been showing that.”

 

For now, Canada hopes to ride the success that they’ve had while striving for better.

 

“We’re building,” Steel said. “Each and every period we want to get better. We didn’t have quite the effort we wanted yesterday but tonight, I felt we got better every period and we’re going in the right direction.”

 

Canada has a day off from preliminary action before it treks to New Era Field to face the United States on Friday. The U.S. has one more test before the big outdoor game as they play Slovakia to close out Day 3’s action at 8 p.m. at KeyBank Center.

 

The Canadians will practice at New Era Field Thursday afternoon.

 

 

Switzerland 3 - Belarus 2

By Aaron Cheris

 

Switzerland opened its World Junior campaign with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Belarus in a thriller at KeyBank Center on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Down a goal with less than 10 minutes left, Switzerland rallied for two late goals to secure the victory, while Belarus endured its second loss in as many days.

 

“It was a hard game. We pushed pretty good at the end and the win is very important for us,” Switzerland forward Valentin Nussbaumer said. “Belarus played very well and we had to put pressure late, and we got the two goals.”

 

In the first period, the story was the goaltending of Belarus’ Andrei Grishenko. Time after time, he denied the Swiss attack to keep the game within reach.

 

However, he was the victim of an unlucky break 8:05 in when a bouncing buck deflected off the stick of Switzerland’s Nicolas Muller, off the skate of a defender, and through Grishenko’s legs for the first goal of the game.

 

Late in the period, Grishenko helped turn the momentum in his team’s favor by making a lunging save with his left pad against Marco Miranda, who looked to have an open net for a goal.

 

“I think he was our best player in these two games,” Belarus captain Maxim Sushko said of Grishenko.

 

Seconds later, Belarus got level as Vladislav Martynyuk’s shot from the blue line was stopped by Swiss goaltender Philip Wuthrich. Sushko had two jabs at the rebound in front, and the second one got through Wuthrich to tie the game after one period.

 

A scoreless second period saw chances on both ends, with nothing getting by either goaltender.

 

Midway through the frame, Belarus earned the first power play of the day as Philipp Kurashev was sent off for tripping, but could do little with it as the game remained tied 1-1 after 40 minutes.

 

“We have to take our chances. We didn’t take them in the first two periods,” Swiss captain Nando Eggenberger said. “We had to keep going and wait for our chances to come, and they came.” 

 

Early in the third, a bad Swiss change resulted in a too many men on the ice penalty. Belarus quickly took advantage on the power play as the puck fell in the slot to Viktor Bobel, who ripped it through to give Belarus its first lead of the game.

 

Less than four minutes later, the Swiss got the equalizer as Sven Leuenberger dug the puck free in the corner and found Nussbaumer all alone in front. The Swiss forward deked and lifted the puck high past Grishenko to tie the game at two.

 

“I was in the best position for that,” Nussbaumer said of the tying goal. “I got the puck, did the fake, and got it in.”

 

Switzerland regained the lead with less than nine minutes to play as Kurashev scored on a one-timer off a pass from Guillaume Maillard to propel the Swiss ahead 3-2.

 

That proved to be enough for Switzerland as Belarus took their first penalty of the day late in the third period. After killing off Sushko’s tripping penalty, Belarus pressed for an equalizer with the goalie pulled. In a desperate goal mouth scramble with time running down, Belarus sent the puck to the net, but the Swiss were able to clear it out as time expired to hold on and win.

 

“I think we played better in the third period than the Swiss,” Sushko said. “But we had two really bad mistakes in the third period, and that’s why we lost.”

 

Grishenko stopped 36 of 39 shots for Belarus in the loss. After managing just nine shots against Sweden on Tuesday, Belarus sent 29 shots toward Wuthrich on Wednesday, and the Swiss goalie made 27 saves to secure the win.

 

Switzerland returns to action on Thursday afternoon with a 2 p.m. matchup against Russia at HarborCenter. After an off day on Thursday, Belarus plays Russia on Friday at noon at HarborCenter.