2015 IIHF World Junior Championship: Day 1

  

 

 

Biscuits and Breezers

Starting today, December 26th, 2014,  the pucks were dropped in four games for the opening of the 2015 IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) World Junior Championship taking place in both Toronto and Montreal. If you are unfamiliar with the World Junior Championship, every year from the end of December into the first week of January, the top junior players around the world represent their home countries in a race to win gold. There are two groups of teams, Group A and Group B, consisting of 5 countries each. Also, many of the skaters on each team are prospects for that year's NHL Draft. Continuing on with today's events, there were four matches to open the tournament. In Group A, Team USA took on Team Finland and Team Canada was paired up against Team Slovakia. In Group B, Team Denmark went up against Team Russia and Team Sweden was taking on Team Czech Republic Group A - USA vs. Finland:   Taking on the reigning gold medal champions, the USA skaters were not leaving anything on the table and it paid off greatly in the end for the Americans. Even though the game was forced into a shootout, it was a very great and tight competition between both rosters and certainly set both teams off on the right foot. The first goal was the game was scored unassisted at 1:22 into the first period by Finland's Mikko Rantanen. Ending the regulation goals, Alex Tuch tied everything up for Team USA when he beat Finnish goaltender Ville Husso at 13:54 with help from Jack Eichel and Anthony Deangelo. After strong performances from both benches, the game was forced into a shootout after no scoring in the second, third, and overtime periods. On Team USA's first attempt, team captain Jack Eichel was able to score against Husso, but on Finland's first attempt, Finnish captain Artturi Lehkonen also scored on team USA's goalie Thatcher Demko. Going into the second round, both shooters were denied winning points. Sonny Milano missed for Team USA when his shot went wide and hit the goal post whereas Juuso Ikonen's was saved by Demko. There would be only three rounds in this shoot out, and that was credit to American forward Chase de Leo. He was able to beat Husso for Team USA's final necessary point, and keeping strong in the cage, Thatcher Demko saved Kasperi Kapanen's attempt and put the final peg in place for the USA's 2-1 win. Group A - Team Canada vs. Team Slovakia:   Concluding Group A's events for the day, Team Canada earned the first shut out of the championship with an outstanding 8-0 win over Slovakia. The Canadians most certainly hit the ice running, but the Slovakians put out many strong cards. The first period of this match up saw three Canadian goals, the first coming from Robby Fabbri four minutes and fifty two seconds into the game. Fabbri was set up by assistant captain Sam Reinhart and Anthony Duclair. Team Canada saw their second goal at 8:17 when Duclair was able to score a goal of his own against Slovakia's goaltender Denis Godla.Max Domi was credited with the assist on this point. Ending the first period three goals to none, Fabbri put the Canadians up when he lit the lamp at 9:09 with help from Nic Petan and Madison Bowley. Going into the second period 6 minutes and 56 seconds, Nick Paul gave Canada their fourth goal of the night when he was successfully set up by Lawson Crouse and Jake Virtanen. 31:35 into the game, Brayden Point put Team Canada's fifth point on the board, with assistance from Petan and Fabbri, and at 36:14, Domi netted the 6th goal of the night. Both Bowley and Reinhart picked up assists. To end the middle frame, Nic Petan beat Slovakia's second goaltender, David Okolicany, for the 7th unanswered point of the match. Jake Virtanen scored the lone goal of the third period at 56:41 to give Team Canada the final push to their 8-0 victory. Group B - Team Russia vs. Team Denmark:   Denmark is coming into this year's championship looking to make a statement for themselves and the ever growing Danish hockey market, and putting the hockey power house Russian team into a shootout is certainly helping that cause. This game was a great showing by both teams and definitely shows the incredible level of competition that is being brought forward by all teams this year. The 12,412 spectators saw the lamp light up for the first time 13 minutes and 15 seconds into the first period when Denmark's assistant captain Oliver Bjorkstrand was able to beat Russia's goaltender Ilya Sorokin with the help received from defenseman Mads Larsen and forward Mathias Asperup. Team Denmark ended the first period with their last goal of the match scored by Nikolaj Ehlers at 15:49 and assisted by Bjorkstrand and Larsen. Nikolai Goldobin scored Team Russia's first goal at the 39:13 mark of the second period. Ivan Provorov and Rinat Valiev picked up the assists on the lone point of the middle frame. This match's last regulation point occurred when Maxim Mamin beat Team Denmark's goaltender Georg Sorensen at the third period's 47:07 minute mark. Mamin received help from his team mates Vladimir Bryukvin and Alexander Sharov. Both teams headed into the overtime period tied at 2 a piece but after the five extra minutes, no one was able to come out with necessary game winning point. A shootout as was needed to decide which bench would walk away with the shootout win. Nikolaj Ehlers was the first shooter to try his hand at the possibility of scoring the game winner, but his shot was saved by Sorokin. Sergei Tolchinski was the next skater sent up and was able to find the back of Denmark's net. Oliver Bjorkstrand was sent in for a possible redemption opportunity but this shot was also saved by Sorokin. In order to seal the deal, Nikolai Goldobin was chosen to be the last player in the shootout and he successfully put the biscuit in the basket behind Denmark's Sorensen for the 3-2 win. Group B - Team Sweden vs. Team Czech Republic: Both Sweden and the Czech Republic were scheduled to participate in the last game of Group B for the day and it was certainly a great showing of the prospects each team is packing this year. Sweden is maintaining their title as a hockey power house but the Czech Republic is most definitely rising in the international standings. Adrian Kempe struck first blood with his goal 14 minutes and 46 seconds after the start of this game. Oskar Lindblom and Gustav Forsling were able to help set up Kempe. 47 seconds before the end of the first, Jens Looke put Sweden up 2-0 with assistance from assistant captain Lucas Wallmark. Eager to knot the score, the Czechs tied everything up at 2 with two goals occurring early on in the second period. Both of the Czech Republic's points in this game were scored by Jakub Vrana. The first point came unassisted at 23:33 and the second was scored at 30:02 with help from Ondrej Kase and assistant captain David Kampf. Putting the Swedes ahead by one, William Nylander was successful with his shot against goaltender Vitek Vanecek exactly 27 seconds after Vrana's last goal. With this point, Lindblom picked up his second assist of the night. Once again Kempe opened the scoring game and he gave Sweden their fourth goal of the game at the 5:37 mark of the final period. Axel Holmstrom and Lindblom were given the assists on this geno. Team Sweden's captain Jacob de la Rose wrapped things up for his home country with the game winner recorded at 47:38. Anton Blidh and Forsling collected the last points of the match with their assists on the final goal which would allow Sweden to walk off the ice with a 5-2 final. To conclude this article, here are the current top 10 point leaders: 1. Robby Fabbri (Canada) - 4 points 2. Nic Petan (Canada) - 3 points 3. Oskar Lindblom (Sweden) - 3 points 4. Adrian Kempe (Sweden) - 2 points 5. Jakub Vrana (Czech Republic) - 2 points 6. Oliver Bjorkstrand (Denmark) - 2 points 7. Max Domi (Canada) - 2 points 8. Anthony Duclair (Canada) - 2 points 9. Brayden Point (Canada) - 2 points 10. Jake Virtanen (Canada) - 2 points                Here is the schedule for Day 2 of the 2015 IIHF WJC (December 27th, 2014): Group A: Slovakia vs. Finland - Bell Centre; 16:00 GMT-5 Start Time Germany vs. Canada - Bell Centre; 20:00 GMT-5 Start Time Group B: Denmark vs. Sweden - Air Canada Centre; 13:00 GMT-5 Start Time Czech Republic vs. Switzerland - Air Canada Centre; 17:00 GMT-5 Start Time   (Photo Credit to IIHF)