Game Recaps: December 31, 2017
By BuffaloWorldJuniors.com Staff
Posted 12/31/17
United States 5 - Finland 4
By Alec Gearty
When the United States needed a win to clinch Group A’s second seed, they looked no further than captain Joey Anderson to lead the charge.
Anderson tallied two goals en route to the United States’ thrilling 5-4 win over Finland on Sunday at KeyBank Center. The United States will face the third seed in Group B.
“We’re finding ways to win,” Anderson said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
United States forward Trent Frederic scored his first goal of the tournament to give the Americans an early advantage.
Casey Mittlestadt, Brady Tkachuck and defenseman Scott Perunovich successfully completed a tic-tac-toe for the United States’ 2-0 lead.
The United States entered the second period with a comfortable lead. As Finland’s Otto Koivula and Aepeli Rasanan each received a penalty, the United States took advantage.
Anderson, who entered Sunday without a goal, placed the puck past Finland’s Ukko-Pekka Luukonen for the tally. Despite faced with a poised, nonchalant Finnish defense, the United States held a 3-0 lead.
Nearly three minutes later, Finland was on the board. Aepeki Rasanen scored to cut Finland’s deficit to two goals.
As the latter stage of the second period, Finland continued to pressure the American defense.
Forward Eeli Tolvanen, who grew frustrated at his lack of scoring through the first three games, scored to give Finland a 3-2 lead. Tolvanen sent the shot past the outstretched blocker of Joseph Woll to capitalize on Finland’s power play.
“That [felt] good,” Tolvanen said. “I’ve been waiting for that since the first game.”
When the United States saw Finland’s comeback begin to amount, that’s when the U.S. captain rallied the team together.
Anderson netted his second goal of the game with 34 seconds left in the period, once again taking advantage of Finland’s miscue on the man-advantage.
Finland wasn’t kept silent.
Despite being shorthanded due to Jusso Valimaki’sinterference penalty, forward Joona Koppanen scored 8:25 seconds into the third period.
Kristian Vesalainen scored 66 seconds later to tie the game. In a short span, the United States watched its once sizable lead dissipate. The United States captain opted to rally his team together.
“We got to find the next one,” Anderson said. “Stay positive. There was no doubt that we were coming back and getting the next one.”
As regulation time began to dwindle down, the United States did what Anderson relayed. Adam Fox broke the tie with 1:37 left on the clock and propelled the United States while preventing its collapse to Finland.
“Casey [Mittlestadt] found me streaking and I was able to put it five hole,” Fox said.
While there is no answer on which team the United States will play in the quarterfinals, Anderson and Team USA is going to be ready.
"We’re going to play whoever we’re going to play," he said. "We take tomorrow — rest day — get healthy, get ready to go and we’re going to play whoever we have on Tuesday.”
Sweden 4 – Russia 3 (SO)
By Ryan Evans
A back-and-forth, high-scoring opening frame gave way to a frantic finish and eventual Sweden shootout win, 4-3, over Russia in the final game of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship preliminary round on Sunday.
Getting the win was a cherry on top, but Sweden clinched the top spot in Group B by virtue of the point it earned as soon as regulation ended. It is the 11th straight year the Swedes have won their group and their 44th straight preliminary round triumph—success that they hope will finally carry over to the medal rounds.
Despite its group stage success, Sweden has finished fourth at three straight tournaments and is 11-13 in the playoff rounds since its run of 44-in-a-row began in 2008. It has not won a medal since obtaining silver in 2014.
“I do not care about the group stage,” Sweden captain Lias Andersson said. “I want to win the gold and you do not win the gold in the group stage. We need to step up in the medal rounds.”
Forwards Linus Lindstrom and Oskar Steen both scored in the best-of-five shootout and goaltender Filip Gustavssonmade three saves to ensure the triumph.
“We have gotten better and better,” Steen said. “We have not played our best game yet.”
After combining for four goals in the game’s first 18-plus minutes the two teams went scoreless over the next 36:03 of play. Sweden forward Glenn Gustaffson looked like the hero when he broke the deadlock with just over five and a half minutes to play, but Russia forward Alexei Polodyan responded just 1:54 later to equalize again and force overtime.
Despite being out-shot, 43-31, Russia had an answer for every Swedish strike—utilizing its skilled forwards to spread the ice and put constant pressure on Sweden’s defense. Russia overcame three one-goal deficits—1-0, 2-1 and 3-2—but was unable to find the winner in regulation that would have vaulted it past the Czech Republic in the group table.
Russia flirted with disaster, though, by conceding six penalties to a Sweden team that had scored at least one power play goal in each of its first three games. But Russia’s penalty kill held strong.
Sweden defenseman Timothy Liljegren, who finished with a goal and two points, said prevailing through the adversityRussia provided was the type of test and confidence boosthis team needed with the quarterfinals on the horizon.
“We are in a pretty good place as a team,” Liljegren said. “We played a solid game today and we have been getting better game-by-game. But we have to step up in the quarterfinals.”
“Sweden is a hockey nation that should always be playing for a medal,” he added. “We have a very good team and we are feeling good right now. I hope we can take a medal.”
Both Sweden and Russia will play in the quarterfinal round, which will be held on Tuesday, January 2. Top-seeded Sweden will face off against Group A No. 4 Slovakia and No. 3 Russia will match up against Group A No. 2 United States at KeyBank Center.
Slovakia 5 – Denmark 1
By Aaron Cheris
Slovakia earned a spot in the quarterfinals with a convincing 5-1 win over Denmark on Sunday night at HarborCenter.
After giving up the game’s first goal, the Slovaks responded in dominant fashion by scoring five unanswered to win and earn the fourth and final spot in the quarterfinals from Group A.
“We were trying to play a simple game today, putting the pucks behind them and put them in the net, and it worked,” Slovakia forward Samuel Bucek said. “That was the game plan, we stuck with that, we did that the whole game, and that’s why we won.”
“We had a lot of scoring chances but we didn’t capitalize,” Denmark forward Joachim Blichfeld said. “They got some good bounces and they scored on all of their chances.”
For the first time in the tournament, the Danes were able to strike first on the power play after Slovakia’s Peter Kundrik was sent to the box for holding. Nikolaj Krag’s shot was kicked out by Slovakia goaltender Roman Durny, but Blichfeld drove to the net and buried the rebound on a backhand to give Denmark its first lead.
“I just wanted to drive the net and luckily the puck bounced out right to me and I had an open net,” Blichfeld said of his goal.
“It actually didn’t get us down. It actually boosted our energy up and we just played more aggressive,” Bucek said of Denmark’s first goal. “That got us two or three quick goals and that’s the main reason why we won, because we broke their spirit down.”
Slovakia responded seven minutes later as Milos Roman received a pass from Alex Tamsi and slapped a shot past Denmark goaltender Kasper Krog to even the score.
“We had a problem in the first five minutes but we played better after that. I’m very happy with my team,” said Roman.
The Slovaks controlled the play for most of the period, outshooting the Danes 13-4, but the game was even after 20 minutes thanks to Krog’s play in net.
Beginning the second on the attack, Denmark was quick to pelt Durny with shots, but the goaltender was equal to the task multiple times to keep the game even.
“He has been huge,” Bucek said. “He’s been outstanding every night and he’s been one of the best players. If we didn’t have him in the net these two games, I don’t think we would have won.”
Halfway through the period, the Slovaks jumped in front as Martin Fehervary sent a wrist shot from the boards through a screen and past Krog. Bucek and Adam Ruzicka assisted on the goal.
On their fifth penalty kill of the night less than five minutes later, Slovakia was aggressive, and it paid off. Off a Denmark turnover, Roman got the puck behind the net, deked his way to the front, and tucked a shot past Krog to double the Slovak lead to 3-1 after two periods.
“There was a good forecheck by my teammate. I stole the puck from the Denmark defenseman, and after that I saw free space in front of the net,” Roman said of his second goal. “I went there and I scored. I’m very happy that I scored.”
Slovakia put the game away in the third period as Bucek rifled a wrist shot home off a faceoff to extend his goal streak to three games. Less than two minutes later, Adam Liska capped the night’s scoring by beating Krog between the legs for his first goal of the tournament.
“It’s huge. When I’m scoring goals, especially when it’s helping my team, I’m very happy about it,” Bucek said of his point streak. “If I was scoring and it wasn’t helping my team I wouldn’t be as happy as I am right now.”
Bucek and Fehervary each recorded a goal and an assist while Roman’s two goals led the way for Slovakia.
Durny stopped 30 of 31 Danish shots to earn the win, his second of the tournament. Krog gave up five goals on 40 shots and took the loss.
Slovakia finishes fourth in Group A with six points andwill play the number one seed of Group B in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Denmark finishes the preliminary round without a point and will meet Belarus in the relegation stage on Tuesday afternoon.
Czech Republic 6 – Switzerland 3
By Jim Christopher
The Czech Republic secured themselves a second place finish in Group B when they defeated Switzerland 6-3 earlier today. Heading into the quarterfinals, the Czech Republic will carry in a 3-0-0-1 record.
For the Swiss, they came into this game looking to build up momentum heading into the quarterfinals with a spot in the next stage already set. Despite being heavily outshot in each period and 60-31 overall for the game, they used high quality shot selections to keep themselves within striking distance for 60 minutes.
The Czech Republic knew they had to focus on special teams if they were going to be successful. The Czechs finished the game with two power-play goals, but still struggled on the penalty kill, allowing one goal on two chances. They understand that they will need to continue to improve upon their penalty kill if they hope to advance far into the medal rounds.
“We need to be better on the penalty kill, we got a lot of goals the last two games, we’re going to work on it and be better the next two days,” Czech Republic head coach Filip Pesan said. “Our power play really helped us a lot the last couple of games.”
Jakub Lauko tallied the first goal of the game for the Czech Republic when he cut across the middle of the ice controlling a loose rebound that he put home on the backhand to make the game 1-0. The initial lead was short lived, however. Only 13 seconds after Lauko’s goal, Ken Jager of Switzerland was able to beat goaltender Jakub Skarek by ringing a snapshot from the top of the faceoff circle off of the far post making the game 1-1.
On two separate occasions this afternoon, Switzerland was able to answer a goal from the Czechs almost immediately. Along with Jager’s quick response goal, Dario Rohrback scored only nine seconds after Kristian Reichel regained the lead for the Czechs early in the second period.
Skarek, who got the nod as the starting goaltender was pulled 6:05 into the second period when he allowed his third goal of the game by getting beat by a Elia Riva wrist shot from the point on the power play. All three goals allowed by Skarek were long shots that came from beyond or just inside the top of the faceoff circle.
Relieving Skarek was Josef Kornear who saw his second taste of game action in this tournament. Kornear was tested early after a Czech Republic turnover led to a breakaway for Guillaume Maillard that he rang off the post. Kornear settled in following that play and looked in control for the rest of the game, not allowing a goal in his 36 minutes of play.
Skarek will need a short memory and put this game behind him as he and his team advance to the next stage.
“Tomorrow is a new day. I will work hard at practice like every day and be ready and positive,” he said.
