Game Recaps: December 30, 2017

By BuffaloWorldJuniors.com Staff

Posted 12/30/17

Canada 8 - Denmark 0

By Jim Christopher

Following a disappointing shootout loss to the Team USA outdoors on Friday, Canada answered back with an 8-0 trouncing of Denmark at KeyBank Center on Saturday. With the win, Canada secured first place in Group A.

Canada applied pressure on Denmark early and often. Dictating the pace of play, Canada outshot Denmark 14-4 after the first period and 44-18 overall in the game. Forward Robert Thomas got the Canadians on the board first when he was the beneficiary of a Taylor Raddysh drop pass that he was able to put home for his first goal of the tournament.

From then on, it was a complete team effort with seven different Canadian players getting on the scoresheet. Cale Makar, Drake Batherson, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Sam Steel and Brett Howden all finished the game with a goal each.

Even after the emotional loss on Friday at New Era Field, Canada still had an opportunity to win their group. The task of putting a game like that behind them was not an easy one, but they were up to the challenge.

“We knew if we came in and won this one we would have first place so it was a big game,” said Steel. “We wanted to do things the right way and I thought we did that all night.”

By consistently putting pressure on Denmark in their own zone, Canada never faced any true challenge on the defensive end.

Goaltender Carter Hart posted his first shutout of the tournament by showing excellent puck vision and not allowing any real rebound opportunities. He stopped all 18 shots he faced.

By finishing with 10 points in the preliminary round, Canada showed that they are ready to seriously compete for a medal again this year. They have outscored their opponents 18-2 in their three victories.

“We did a lot of things the right way so I think that gains more confidence than anything,” Steel said. “We’re in a good spot heading into the quarters.”

After failing to win the gold medal in last year’s tournament, the players on this team know how much a win would mean to their country. They’ll know their opponent in the next round following Sunday’s slate of games.

“There’s always going to be a little bit of pressure but you want to put that in the back of your mind and just play your game,” said Formenton.

Finland 5 – Slovakia 2

By Alec Gearty

Behind its late offensive charge, Finland was able to prevail against the upstart group from Slovakia 5-2 on Saturday at KeyBank Center.

“I think we played a really good third period,” Finnish goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 24 saves in the win, said. “We didn’t give them any chance to win.”

The matchup didn’t start off right for Finland, who leads all teams with 132 shots on goal. Finland was outshot 11-9 through the first period as Slovakia gained the advantage in each aspect of the game.

Despite Slovakia being awarded two power plays, Finland’s penalty kill prevented any damage to Luukkonen. Both teams ended the opening period scoreless, and that’s how the game stood for the first 27 minutes.

Once forward Joona Koppanen broke through in the second period, Finland slowly began to establish its dominance.

Eeli Tolvanen, who has yet to score a goal in the tournament, did his part to propel his team after Slovakia’s captain Martin Bodak tied the game. Tolvanen caught Olli Juolevi along the boards. Aapeli Rasanen redirected Juolevi’s shot for the team’s go-ahead goal.

While the team’s approach didn’t change much, Tolvanen felt they were more determined to seize the result.

“Everybody wanted to win the game,” Tolvanen said. “I think that was in the back of my head.”

While Finland never looked back after the tally, Tolvanen said it’s “been tough” in regards to his scoreless drought.

Luckily for Tolvanen, his teammates have been able to maintain a scoring touch.

Forward Aleksei Heponiemi extended Finland’s lead in the early moments of the third period. As he drove towards the net, Heponiemi used his skate to redirect the initial shot into the net.

Slovakia’s Samiel Bocek scored with 10:57 left in the third period to cut the Finnish lead to one. While appearing to revitalize the Slovakia bench, Bocek’s tally was the closest that came to overtaking the lead.

Joni Ikonen scored, arguably, the most unsuspecting goal of the tournament as he settled in for an offensive zone faceoff. Once the puck was dropped, Ikonen backhanded the shot for the 4-2 lead.

Markus Nurmi put the game out of Slovakia’s grasp as he added onto Finland’s attack with a goal of his own.

“We wanted to win and take one point because we needed [it],” Slovakia’s Filip Krivosik said.

Slovakia returns to action immediately as it plays host to Denmark, who holds a winless record in the group stage, at 6 p.m. at HarborCenter.

Finland controls its own destiny with the win. The Finns, with first place remaining a long shot, jump into second place in Group A with the win. Finland maintains a point advantage over the United States, who have five points. The two teams meet on Sunday with essentially second place on the line.

“Everybody wants to beat the USA because they are one of the top teams in the tournament every year,” Tolvanen said. “They’re the gold medal winners from last year so I think everybody wants to beat them.”

Sweden 7 – Switzerland 2

By Ryan Evans

After an even opening period, Sweden capitalized on a pair of turnovers to break its Group B game against Switzerland open before flexing its attacking muscle late and running away with a 7-2 win on Saturday at HarborCenter.

With the win, Team Sweden remains perfect at the 2018 IIHF World Championship with nine points over the course of three games. It also extended its impressive success in the tournament’s preliminary round to 43 straight wins.

Success on special teams proved to be key for Sweden's survival early. The Swedes were 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and opened the scoring in the first period on the power play courtesy of a well set-up tip play orchestrated by forward Alexander Nylander, and forward Lias Andersson, who deflected the puck in. The tally was Sweden’s fifth man-advantage marker in three games.

Nylander’s assist was his fifth point (1+4) of the tournament, which is tied for fifth among all tournament skaters.

“Special teams is a huge part of this tournament,” Nylander said. “It is really good to have a good power play. They can make the difference in games.”

After the two sides battled to a 1-1 deadlock in the opening stanza, Sweden forced a pair of turnovers in the middle frame to build a two-goal advantage the Swiss failed to recover from.

Andersson intercepted a misplaced breakout pass and sprung himself on goal to break the deadlock just over six minutes into the second. Forward Axel Jonsson Fjallby followed that up by stripping a defender of the puck at the blue line and racing in to convert six minutes after that to make it 3-1.

Switzerland forward Marco Miranda cut his team’s deficit to one off of a turnover of his own late in the second, but his team's comeback hopes were extinguished by four unanswered third period Swedish goals—two courtesy of forward Elias Petterson, including his highlight reel-worthy second strike which rounded out the scoring.

“We started to play the way we want to play—with high speed and a high forecheck,” Pettersson said. “We stopped making it hard for ourselves.”

With four goal and six points in three games, Pettersson is one of two Swedes tied with Team USA forward Casey Mittelstadt for the tournament scoring lead—the other being defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who notched his third-straight multi-point performance.

But the Canucks prospect believes there is room for him and his team to improve before the medal rounds, which is a scary thought for opponents.

“I am happy with my points, but I think I need to play better and create more chances at 5-on-5,” Pettersson said. “I have high expectations of myself and I feel our line is not creating as much at even strength as we want.”

Sweden will look to wrap up the top spot in its group when it concludes the preliminary round on Sunday, December 31 against Russia at 8 p.m. at KeyBank Center. Switzerland will next face the Czech Republic for a New Year’s Eve noon game at KeyBank Center.

Czech Republic 6 – Belarus 5

By Aaron Cheris

In the tournament’s highest scoring game thus far, the Czech Republic used a five-goal second period outburst to take the lead before holding on to defeat Belarus 6-5 in a wild affair at KeyBank Center on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, the Czech Republic clinched a spot in the quarterfinals while Belarus will be playing in the relegation stage.

“It was a tough game and I’m glad we won it but it wasn’t a great game for us,” said Czech forward Filip Chytil. “We didn’t play our game for the whole game and we need to improve on it.”

Belarus’ start to the game was better than the finish as, for the first time in this tournament, they got the game’s first goal. With the puck at the top of the faceoff circle, Yegor Sharangovich sniped a wrist shot over the glove of Czech goaltender Josef Korenar on the power play.

Minutes later, Belarus had a prime opportunity to double the lead as Czech Republic forward Daniel Kurovsky was given a five minute major and a game misconduct for slashing. However, Belarus was unable to capitalize on the long man advantage as the lead remained 1-0.

Leading after a period for the first time in the tournament, Belarus was fast to double the lead early in the second as Belarus captain Maxim Sushko muscled free of a defender behind the Czech net and passed to Ivan Drozdov, and his backhand found the net to make it 2-0 Belarus.

“We weren’t ready in the first period,” Czech captain Marek Zachar said. “We said in the room that we have to work harder in the second and we did.”

Czech coach Filip Pesan then made a goaltending change, removing Korenar in favor of Jakub Skarek, and that proved to be a pivotal moment in the game.

Wasting no time, the Czechs mounted a comeback. Just 41 seconds after Belarus’ second goal, the Czech Republic got on the board as Radovan Pavlik scored on a rebound.

Twenty-four seconds later, the game was even as Libor Hajek’s wrist shot from the high slot beat Grishenko to tie the game 2-2, capping a sequence that included three goals in a 1:05 span.

“We were more confident on the puck and we put more pressure to the net and we got the goals,” Chytil said of the second period comeback.

On their first power play of the afternoon, the Czechs took the lead as Filip Zadina got the puck at the side of the net and scored to propel his team in front 3-2.

After Grishenko couldn’t control a rebound, Zachar corralled the puck behind the net and found Chytil, who scored to double the Czech lead to 4-2.

“I think we played a really good game,” Sushko said. “But we lost concentration for the first 10 minutes of the second period and we allowed the goals.”

Less than three minutes later, Pavlik scored his second of the period as his wrister snuck past Grishenko to give the Czechs a 5-2 lead. That would be the end of Grishenko’s start, as coach Yuri Faikov pulled him in favor of Dimitri Rodik as both teams made goaltender changes in the second.

“We tried to play too fancy and that’s why it happened,” Sushko said.

With a power play near the end of the period, Belarus pulled closer as Sharangovich scored his second of the game with a wrist shot from the faceoff dot, cutting the Czech lead to 5-3 after two periods.

Down, but not out, Belarus clawed back in the third period as Igor Martynov converted a pass from Drozdov on the power play to make it 5-4.

The Czechs got what would prove to be the winning goal from Zachar, who received a pass from Vojtech Budik on the left wing, drove to the net, and scored on a breakaway past Rodik.

“Vojtech Budik did a pretty good job behind the net. I just took some speed, and I was on the breakaway and I tried to go upstairs and it worked,” Zachar said.

With less than six minutes to play, Belarus again cut the deficit to one as Vladislav Gabrus’ wrist shot beat Skarek, but Belarus would get no closer.

In the final minutes, Belarus’ attack came close, but could not get the equalizer they needed to avoid finishing the preliminary round pointless as the Czechs clinched a quarterfinal spot.

“Coach told us that we have to come back because it’s our character and our game,” Sushko said. “All of Belarus trusts in us and we tried to come back and we almost did.”

In goal, Skarek earned the win for the Czechs by stopping nine of 12 shots in relief after Korenar gave up two goals on nine shots. For Belarus, Rodik stopped 16 of 17 shots after Grishenko surrendered five goals on 22 shots.

Five different Czech players and five different Belarusian players each recorded multi-point games. Sharangovich and Pavlik led the way by scoring two goals each.

The Czech Republic ends its preliminary round action with a noon matchup against Switzerland at KeyBank Center on Sunday afternoon. Having lost all four of its preliminary round games, Belarus will play in the relegation stage on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at HarborCenter against an opponent yet to be determined.

Finland 5 - Slovakia 2

By Alec Gearty