Game Recaps: January 4, 2018

By BuffaloWorldJuniors.com Staff

Posted 1/4/18

Semifinal: Canada 7 – Czech Republic 2

By Ryan Evans

 

The clock struck midnight for the Cinderella of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship on Thursday as forward Drake Batherson led Canada and its power play to a 7-2 semifinal rout of the upstart Czech Republic.

 

With the win, Canada will play for the World Juniors crown for the second straight year and for the third time in the last four. The Canadians will face off against Sweden seeking their record 16th gold medal, but just their second in the last eight years.

 

“We are all hungry to go get that gold tomorrow,” Batherson said. “We are going to give it everything we have.”

 

Forward Filip Zadina sniped the Czechs to a promising start, opening the scoring just under six minutes into the game with his sixth goal, but penalties quickly unraveled their momentum and permanently turned the tide in the Canadians’ favor.

 

“We needed to stay out of the penalty box,” Zadina said.

 

After falling behind for the first time in regulation at the tournament, Canada made their opponents pay for their transgressions and responded with six unanswered goals—the first three of which came on the man advantage, including two from Batherson, en route to a 3-for-4 showing.

 

Canada’s power play is now running at a tournament-best 56.5 percent clip (13-for-23). Czech head coach Filip Pesan cautioned his team against taking “stupid penalties” on Wednesday, but it failed to heed his words as well and the lessons of Canada’s previous opponents and had its fairy tale run halted as a result.

 

“We have been keeping it simple and not forcing plays (on the power play),” Batherson said. “We are getting pucks to the net. There has been some pretty goals and some goals that came from just banging them home in the crease.”

 

Batherson added another in the second, which pushed the lead to 6-1, to finish with a hat trick. The Ottawa Senators prospect now boasts six goals in his last three games and five in his country’s two playoff round contests.

 

Batherson’s first goal, which proved to be the game-winner, was deftly tipped in off a shot from the blue line by defenseman Cale Makar—who has come a long way since starting the tournament as his team’s No. 7 defenseman. Makar finished with two assists on Thursday, now leads all tournament defenders with three goals and eight points in six games and was recognized as one of Canada’s top three players after the semifinal triumph.

 

“I try to make the little impacts on the game,” Makar said. “I want to go out there and make a little bit of a difference on every shift, like getting pucks on net, no matter what the situation is.”

 

Once the Canadians got rolling there was no slowing them down. After forward Sam Steel and Batherson’s power play markers in the opening period seized the lead, Canada buried the Czech Republic with four more in the middle frame and one in the final stanza.

 

Zadina’s second of the night cut the deficit to five, 7-2, with 9:49 to play, but any hope of a Czech upset was extinguished long before that.

 

The tournament’s most dominant team will now play for its top prize. Canada has out-scored opponents, 36-10, and its last four wins have come by an average margin of 6.25 goals.

 

Backstopping that effort is goaltender Carter Hart, who has a 1.97 goals-against average and .917 save percentage in five starts. Hart was in goal for the Canadians’ 5-4 shootout loss to the United States in last year’s gold medal game and he is eager for the chance to try and avenge that bitter defeat.

 

“We’re very lucky to have another chance at this,” Hart said. “Last year was heartbreaking for us. We are going to make the most of the opportunity that we have here.”

 

“A lot of things have unfolded since then,” he added. “The group that we have right now is a very exciting group. We are excited for the opportunity we are getting tomorrow.”

 

The World Juniors medal round wraps up on Friday, January 5. Canada and Sweden will meet for gold at 8 p.m., and the Czech Republic and United States will face off for bronze at 4 p.m.

 

 

Semifinal: Sweden 4 – United States 2

By Jim Christopher

               

It was expected to be the matchup of the tournament. The high-powered offense of the Americans against the stout defense of Sweden in semifinals action at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship.

 

In the end, it was the defense that came out on top as Sweden advanced to its first gold medal game since 2014 with a 4-2 win over the United States.

 

“We played hard especially in front of the net. We played a hard game,” Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said.

 

Heading into the third period, the game was a closely contested and defensive heavy battle until Sweden broke open the game by scoring three goals in a 2:08 span.

 

Lias Andersson and Frederik Karlstrom started the scoring by converting a two-on-one opportunity with a textbook give and go that snuck by goaltender Joseph Woll, making the score 2-0. Oskar Steen scored a shorthanded goal shortside on Woll just a few minutes later and Axel Jonsson Fjallby added another shorthanded tally on the same penalty kill 38 seconds later to put the game out of reach.

 

The United States now falls to 4-1-1-8 all-time in 14 semifinal appearances.

 

Kieffer Bellows notched his tournament-leading seventh goal late in the third period for Team USA and Brady Tkachuk recorded a point in his sixth straight game by scoring to pull the American within two, but it was too little, too late for the defending champions.

 

“They have so many different assets on their team that can really damage you at all times,” Bellows said. “They have great offensive, superb defense. We played a really complete game I thought. They just came out on top.”

 

Following a scoreless first period, Sweden’s Elias Pettersson got the scoring underway in the second.

 

While Sweden was on the power play, Pettersson had the puck at the left faceoff dot, showed great patience and then launched a terrific wrist shot that beat Woll in the far corner. Pettersson has been causing problems for teams from that spot all tournament as he scored an eerily similar goal against the Czech Republic in the preliminary round.

 

The U.S. had their best scoring chance in the first two periods off of a pass from Woll to Casey Mittelstadt who was waiting at the opposing blue line. By catching Sweden on a change, the United States had a 3-on-0 opportunity that Mittelstadt ultimately decided to take himself which was denied by goaltender Filip Gustavsson.

 

The decision for a player to take a shot on a 3-on-0 may be surprising to some, but when that player with the puck on his stick happens to be the tournament’s leading scorer, he tends to have the confidence of his coach and teammates.

 

“Casey can do anything he wants when he has the puck,” U.S. head coach Bob Motzko said. “I got a little faith in Casey Mittelstadt to make the play.”

 

The rest of the Americans echoed their coach’s sentiment.

 

“I have all the trust in Casey to make the right play and he wanted that breakaway and I trusted him to do that,” Bellows said. “If he’s got a breakaway, I’m going to give it to him every single time.”

 

The way the game moves in such a fast pace, these players have to make critical decisions in split seconds. Mittelstadt and his team just happened to be on the unfortunate side a crucial play.

 

“To be honest, I didn’t even know it was a 3-on-0,” Mittelstadt said. “I’ve got to bury that. I guess that’s what it comes down to. Obviously if I score that, it’s a different game.” 

 

The line combination of Mittelstadt, Tkachuk and Joey Anderson was generating scoring chances early and often while applying constant pressure throughout the game. They were ultimately held in check by the aggressive nature of the Swedish defense, a unit that was the second-best in goals allowed coming into today.

 

The way the first half of the game was going, however, it was shaping up be a low-scoring affair with chances going wide and pucks bouncing the wrong way.

 

On their first power-play opportunity of the game, Sweden had a chance to go up and take an early lead but were denied by Woll.

 

With forward Alexander Nylander the recipient of a crease piercing one-time pass, he attempted to go five-hole. Woll closed his pads and spun around just as the puck was hovering on the goal line, preventing Sweden their sixth power-play goal of the tournament.  

 

The United States had an excellent scoring chance on their first power-play as well from Mittelstadt found Joey Anderson backdoor but Anderson couldn’t redirect the pass into the net, sending it wide.             

Both teams aren’t finished yet. As high as a win and as low as a loss can feel at this stage, both teams realize there is one more hurdle to clear.

 

“This team can win gold. We have every chance to win gold,” Dahlin said. “We don’t think about much other than that. We are so excited for tomorrow. We will do everything it takes to win gold.”

 

“We’re trying to put this game behind us and move on to tomorrow,” Bellows said. “Obviously our goal is to win that bronze medal. We’re just doing it for those guys in that locker room.

 

Sweden will take on the winner of the Canada and Czech Republic matchup for the gold medal tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at the KeyBank Center. The United States will play the loser of that matchup at 4 p.m. in the lead-up to the gold medal game.

 

 

Relegation Game 2: Denmark 3 – Belarus 2 (SO)

By Aaron Cheris

 

Despite letting a third period lead slip away, team Denmark avoided relegation with a 3-2 shootout win over Belarus on Thursday afternoon at KeyBank Center.

 

With the win, Denmark earned a spot in the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada.  Belarus finishes the tournament winless and will play at the Division I level next year.

 

“This is amazing for Danish ice hockey,” Denmark coach Olaf Eller said. “Danish ice hockey has made a fantastic run for the past few years, and I think we learned a lesson this year. The battle level that we showed in the relegation, we should have showed in the first games too.”

 

Early on, the Danes came out and won the battles.

 

In a reverse performance from Tuesday, it was Denmark who came out strong in the first period. After falling behind 2-0 after 20 minutes on Tuesday, the Danes jumped ahead by a pair after one period on Thursday.

 

The first goal came off the stick of Daniel Nielsen as he received a pass from Joachim Blichfeld and took a wrist shot that deflected off a defender and past Belarus goaltender Andrei Grishenko to give Denmark the lead halfway through the period.

 

Less than two minutes later, Blichfeld was in the center of the action again as his shot from the faceoff circle deflected off Grishenko and rolled toward the goal line. With the puck still on the line, Jonas Rondbjerg dove in swept the puck over the line to give Denmark a 2-0 lead.

 

“He’s a really good player and we had plenty of good connections,” Rondjberg said of Blichfeld. “It took every little bit we had left to get through this one.”

 

Looking to change their fortunes, Belarus pulled Grishenko from the game after giving up three goals on five shots. Dimitri Rodik entered after the timeout and finished the game in net.

 

“Every game it looked like we were not playing the first period,” Belarus captain Maxim Sushko said. “Before every game coach tried to tell us we needed to start good so we could be ready for the game.”

 

Denmark was able to hold the 2-0 lead after two periods with a scoreless second period, but not without a scary incident. Halfway through the frame, Blichfeld dumped the puck into the Belarusian end and was hit from behind by defenseman Dmitri Deryabin.

 

Blichfeld went hard into the boards in front of the bench area, and ultimately was carried off the ice in a stretcher, giving a thumbs up to the crowd on his way off the ice.

 

“I’ve heard that he is OK, but he still needs an x-ray,” Eller said after the game. “By the moves he was able to do, they think that he should be good.”

 

Deryabin was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding and was ejected from the game, leaving both teams a man short for the rest of the afternoon. The lead remained 2-0 after 40 minutes after Deryabin’s teammates killed off the major penalty.

 

Playing without one of their top forwards, Denmark could muster little offense for the rest of the game.

 

“When we lost our best goal scorer, it was tough,” Eller said. “But it says something about Danish ice hockey that when it was most against us they stepped up and got through it again and that shows the character of this group.”

 

With a two-man advantage in the third period, Belarus was quick to mount a comeback. Sushko got his team on the board by redirecting a hard pass from Vladislav Yeryomenko past Denmark goalie Kasper Krog to cut the lead to 2-1.

 

“We knew that we had to score one because after the second period we were talking and we said we needed to get one then we would get more,” Sushko said. “We had more energy than Denmark, but it was tough.”

 

Less than a minute later, Belarus tied the game on the same power play as Ilya Litvinov got the puck all alone in front of the net and scored off a pass from Viktor Bovbel, evening the score at 2-2 with 10 minutes to play.

 

“The message was we had to try to stick to our game plan but I think we didn’t succeed in that,” Eller said. “The penalties turned the game over and they took advantage of that.” 

 

With strong goaltending from Rodik and Krog, the game remained tied and went to overtime. In the extra frame, Denmark had a late power play, but couldn’t convert as the game went to a shootout.

 

Through three rounds in the shootout, each team had scored twice. In the fourth round, Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup put Denmark in front with a high shot on his forehand just under the crossbar. Looking to answer, Belarus’ Igor Martynov lost control of the puck before he could shoot. Rondbjerg then stepped up and buried a backhand winner for Denmark with the next shot, setting off a wild celebration on the ice.

 

“I tried that move a few times in practice and it worked out so I thought I’d do the same in the game and luckily it went in,” Rondbjerg said.

 

Rodik stopped all 17 shots he faced in relief before the shootout but took the loss. Krog earned the win with 23 saves before the shootout.