EDMONTON, AB – The International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships will see a rematch of last year’s finals action albeit a game earlier as Russia used a 2-1 overtime win over the Czech Republic 2-1 to move into the Semi-Finals against host nation Canada. Finland will play Sweden in the other Semi-Finals matchup Tuesday night.
The Finns moved ahead by virtue of an 8-5 win over Slovakia in the other Quarter-Finals action Monday night.
The Russian Canada game comes against the backdrop of Canada blowing a big lead in last year’s Championship game and losing the gold medal to Russia in Buffalo, New York. The Canadians who had a 3-0 lead going into the last period saw Russia score five unanswered goals as they simply collapsed in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The defeat may have been the worst psychological loss the usual dominant U-20 Canadian team has ever experienced in WJC play.
Now they have a chance to redeem themselves Tuesday on their home ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
Quarters-Finals Action
Russia-2, Czech Republic-1 (O/T)
The Russian win wasn’t easy. Grigori Zheldakov a defenseman with Moscow Spartak in the Kontinental Hockey League hammered a slap shot home to end another marvelous performance by Czech Republic goalie Petr Mrazek one and a half minutes into overtime thus eliminating the Czechs. Nikita Kucherov drew the lone assist on the game winner. Mrazek who plays major junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League and was a draft choice of the Detroit Redwings made 43 saves in the loss.
His Russian counterpart in goal 17-year-old Andrei Vasilevski was equally brilliant.
The young Russian made 38 stops on his way to the win. Both goalies made numerous dazzling saves to keep their teams in the game throughout the entire contest. After a scoreless first period the teams traded goals in period two with the Czechs drawing first blood. The lone Czech goal came at 7:16 of the middle stanza as Thomas Hertl set up Jakob Culek with a beautiful backhand through the crease and Culek didn’t miss. Dmitrij Jaskin got credit for the secondary assist on the game’s first score. The ensuing red goal light caused the Saddledome crowd to erupt. The big crowd of mainly Canadian fans spent all evening basically giving the Czechs home ice advantage.
No doubt the Canadian fans pulled so hard for the Czechs based on last year’s debacle and fearing a very fast and very talented Russian team. Russia replied at 12:47 when Danil Apalkov launched a sharp wrist shot that bounced off Mrazek and went high into the net just under the cross bar. Sergei Barbashev and Zakhar Arzamastsev drew helpers on the tying goal. The crowd’s euphoria was dampened and the extinguished by the Russians overtime win.
It should be noted however that Canada beat the Czechs 5-0 in head to head action in the Group B Preliminary Round.
Finland-8, Slovakia-5
Finland rattled off four straight second period goals to break away from a 2-2 first period deadlock with Slovakia and earn their spot Tuesday night in the Semi-Finals against Sweden. The Granlund brothers Mikael (1g-3a) and Markus 2g-1a) led the Finnish offense to the win.
Interestingly, 16 year old Finnish forward Aleksander Barkov who scored the eventual game winner became the youngest player in WJC action to score a goal. He broke the record held by National Hockey League super star Sidney Crosby. Joel Armia started the scoring for Finland in the first period. His pass hit the stick of a Slovakian defender and skipped past starting goalie Juraj Simboch within the game’s first five minutes.
The Slovaks tied the score 1-1 at 14:24 as Matus Chowan found a loose puck about ten feet out on the slot hand beat eventual winning goalie Sami Aittokallio. The tie lasted all of eight seconds. Finland bounced ahead 2-1 as Simboch could not corral the rebound on a long distance shot by Roope Hamalainen. Next however Hamalainen skated to the goalmouth and emerged out of a scramble with a clean shot into the net. The Slovaks came back again to tie the game in the last minute of the first period. Marek Tvrdon’s shot from the point on a power play eluded Aittokallio and sent the teams to the dressing rooms tied 2-2. The Granlund brothers went to work in period two. Mikael Granlund scored first on a power play.
A minute later his brother Markus was set up by Teemu Pulkkinen and blasted a one-timer off the top bar and past Simboch to make it 4-2. In an encore Mikael got an assist as a puck he carried into the zone ended up on the stick of his brother Markus who drove Simboch out of the game with the Finns’ fifth goal. Relief goal tender Dominik Riecicky came into the game for Slovakia with just under 30 minutes of regulation time left. He didn’t fare well either. He quickly yielded the historic Barkov goal and the game was 6-2 Finland as the clock hit 11:45 of the middle period.
The Slovakians cut the deficit in half to 6-3 with the final score of the period at 13:35 as Matus Chowan and Martin Marincin combined to set up Richard Mraz. Slovakia did creep within two goals early in period three on a strike by Martin Daloga.
It mattered little however as Finland answered with two straight third period goals. The first came from Joonas Donskoi assisted by Ville Pokka while the other was scored by Pulkkinen and was set up by the Granlund brothers. The Finns led 8-4 until Marko Dano got a late goal in the game’s last minute for Slovakia as the clock ticked down on the 8-5 Finnish win.
In other action Denmark lost to Switzerland 4-3 in overtime in the lone Relegation Round game played yesterday. The Swiss avoided relegation with the win.
Contact the author at Phil.Brand@prohockeynews.com
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