Finland, Canada, Sweden and US squads post wins in WJC action

BUFFALO, NY- Tuesday featured four games as the International Ice Hockey Federation’s U20 World Junior Championship Tournament entered the third day of competition. Finland, Canada, the USA and Sweden picked up valuable points in a full day of action. Two games were played Monday evening with Slovakia beating Germany in a tight 2-1 overtime game while the Czech Republic beat Norway 2-0.  Group A

Finland-4, Switzerland-0
Finland moved temporarily into first place in Group A with a 4-0 win over Switzerland Tuesday at the IIHF World Junior Championships. Joni Ortio faced and stopped all 15 Swiss shots in recording the shutout. The win worth three points combined with a point earned in their opening overtime loss to the USA propelled Finland to the top of the standings in Group A until the US won their match later in the day versus Slovakia.
 
The Swiss team which opened the competition with a win over Germany was dominated from the opening whistle by Finland. The Finns outshot the Swiss by a margin of 18 to 5 in the opening period. Despite the domination Finns were held off the scoreboard until the 19:41 mark of the first stanza when Joonas Nattinen scored. He deflected a shot from the point by Toni Rajala past Swiss goaltender Benjamin Conz to pick up what turned out to be the game winner. Conz faced 38 shots on goal in absorbing the loss.

  The Finns went on to score once in the second period and twice more in period three to gain the four goal margin of victory. Other Finnish scorers in order of their strikes were Jaako Turtianen, Teemu Pulkkinen and Julius Juattla.
 
Next up the Finns play Germany on Wednesday and close out Preliminary Round action against Slovakia on Friday. The Swiss have games left against Slovakia on Thursday and face the USA on Friday.
 
United States-6, Slovakia-1

The US U20 National Team got two first period goals from Kyle Palmieri and a three point night including a goal from Charlie Coyle on their way to a dominating win over Slovakia. Palmieri also ended up with three points. The effort allowed the US to vault into the lead in Group A Preliminary Round play.
 
Slovakia was able to muster just one shot on goal in period one while the US launched 22 shots at losing goaltender Dominik Riecicky. Part of the dominance in shots on goal came as the US enjoyed a five minute power play. Slovakian defenseman Peter Hrasko drew a five minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head on US forward Jerry D’Amigo. One of Palmieri’ goals came during this power play.
 
The US extended their lead to 4-0 in period two using two power play goals to add to their lead. First Coyle struck at 3:56 followed at 11:47 by Chris Brown’s power play success. Jack Campbell in goal for the US was finally tested in period two. After facing only a single shot in the opening period the Slovaks managed some pressure and Tomas Jurco responded with his first goal of the tournament.
 
The Slovakian euphoria which came at 12:26 was short-lived however as Drew Shore slammed home an unassisted strike just over a minute later for the Americans.
 
The sixth US goal at 16:57 chased Riecicky from the game. He was replaced in goal by Jurja Holly. Emerson Etem was credited with the sixth US score.   Period two ended with the US leading 6-1. The shots on goal totals stood at 43 to 11 in favor of the US as the horn ended the second period.
 
A scoreless third period nevertheless saw the US run its shots on goal total to 57 while the Slovaks ended up with 17 on the night. The US has Germany and Switzerland left and Slovakia plays Switzerland and Finland to finish up round one play.
 
Group B
 
Canada-7, Czech Republic-2 <:u1:p>
Canadian Brayden Schenn led Canada with five points including one goal and Ryan Ellis chipped in a goal and three assists in a 7-2 victory over the Czech Republic this afternoon in Buffalo.   Seven Canadians scored goals in the lopsided victory. Filip Novotny in goal for the losing team faced 38 shots while his Canadian counterpart Olivier Roy swept aside 17 of the 197 shots he faced in the win.
 
Just as the large crowd of mostly Canadian fans settled into their seats at HSBC Arena Czech forward   Anomin Honejsek converted a mix up by the Canadian defensemen into an early 1-0 lead for the Czechs. His goal came at 0:49 of the game against the Canadian net minder Roy.
 
If the Czechs were optimistic after the goal they quickly lost the feeling as in between the first Czech goal and their last Team Canada poured in seven straight unanswered scores. The last goal of the game by the Czechs came on a power play as Jakub Jarabek got the game’s last marker.
 
The quick first period goal was the second straight game in which Canada gave up an early score. Just like their last game against Russia however they came roaring back to record their second tournament win. In addition to the goals by Schenn and Ellis Canada also got strikes from Jaden Schwartz, Louis LeBlanc, Jared Cowen, Cody Eakin and Tyson Barrie.
 
LeBlanc’s goal came while the Canadians were killing off a five minute match penalty called against Zach Kassian.   The call on Kassian came on what appeared from replays to be a solid shoulder to chest hit. In any case a match penalty for a check to the head and neck area was assessed. Kassian will sit one game for the match penalty assessment. Czech defenseman Petr Senkerik left the ice on a stretcher as a result of the hit. Team Canada also got their own five minute power play when Czech forward Martin Erk received a major penalty and a game misconduct for spearing in the third period.
 
Team Canada continued to be effective on the power play scoring four times with the man advantage in this game.   They had three power play goals in their game against Russia. Canada plays Norway Wednesday and then skates on New Year’s Eve in a much anticipated game against Sweden. The Czechs have Sweden and Russia left on their Preliminary Round schedule.    
 
Sweden-2, Russia-0
Anton Lander and Jesper Fasth scored first period goals for Sweden as the blue and gold jumped on Russian goal tender Dimitri Shikin with two goals on 12 first period shots. Meanwhile at the other end of the ice Robin Lehner who has already played in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators played brilliantly all evening making a number of sparkling saves.
 
Thus, while the balance of the game produced no scoring, the atmosphere remained intense especially as the Russians were thwarted on a number of real scoring opportunities by Lehner. The end to end action was played in Niagara at small but jammed packed Dwyer Arena. Lehner made 30 saves while Shikin faced a total of 38 shots in the loss.
 
Sweden’s win kept them on track for the big New Year’s Eve head to head against Canada. Both teams have won twice in regulation and are deadlocked with six points each. Meanwhile the Russians who have never missed the next round of this tournament find themselves with two must win games left to avoid that ignominy.
 
Russia plays Norway and Czech Republic while Sweden plays the Czechs and the highly anticipated matchup vs. Canada. If Sweden gets past the Czech Republic and Canada wins over Norway their matchup on New Year’s Eve may be the highlight of the Preliminary Round.    
 

<:u1:p>Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com <:u1:p>