The 2018 World Junior Championship preliminary round continued today with a unique atmosphere for the US and Canada, who took it outdoors to New Era Field – the home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York.
First, though, there was the early game featuring Russia and Belarus with the Russians winning 5-2. Of the Devils prospects in the game, Mikhail Maltsev was all over the scoresheet. He had an assist on Alexei Polodyan’s goal which opened the scoring 10:14 into the first period. The Russians built a 2-0 lead after one, a 3-0 lead after two and scored two more in the third while giving up two to make the final 5-2.
Maltsev took a double minor for high sticking with a little over five minutes left in the game, giving Belarus four minutes of power play time to essentially end the game. They did not score, however.
Maltsev’s stat line read an assist for one point, four minutes in penalties with the double minor, an even plus/minus rating and three shots on goal in 14:12 of ice time. Yegor Zaitsev had a shot on goal and an even plus/minus rating all in 16:44 of ice time.
Russia now stands virtually tied with Sweden in Group B play, but remember that the Swedes have played one less game. Russia is 2-0-0-1 with six points and a plus-5 goal differential. The Russians will have a crucial showdown with Sweden on Sunday.
Another crucial game was being played a few miles outside of Buffalo in some very snowy conditions. The Americans and Canadians played at New Era Field in Orchard Parks in the first outdoor game in World Junior history. It set a WJC attendance record with more than 40,000 fans, more than doubling the previous record.
Team USA wore some nice uniforms, blue and based on those of the NFL’s Bills, but fans in attendance might not have been able to see them through the snow that was piling up throughout the game. The ice crew did all that they could to keept the playing surface playable, but things were a little dicey at times. The teams were basically playing through a blizzard.
The USA essentially needed this win following their loss to Slovakia last night. Things looked bleak after Canada built up a 3-1 lead after two periods of play. But the US showed their resiliency, getting two in the third to tie things up with Brady Tkachuk netting the equalizer with just under 14 minutes left in the game. That was it for regulation and we were headed for overtime.
When overtime yielded no result, it was off to a shootout. This game had eerie parallels to last year’s gold medal game between these two teams. Canada built up a big lead only for the United States to come back and force a shootout. Would the result be the same as last year in Montreal?
It would. Kieffer Bellows and Tkachuk each scored for the USA while goalie Jake Oettinger was perfect to give the US the hard fought victory over rival Canada.
Canada’s Michael McLeod’s stat line read that he was an even plus/minus in 10:09 of ice time. For the United States, Joey Anderson had three shots on goal and was an even rating in 20:42 of ice time. One of those shots was a nice scoring chance in overtime right before the goaltenders changed sides (as they do in these outdoor games).
The US is now back into the thick of things in the Group A standings and will play a big game against Finland on New Year’s Eve Sunday.
We will see you here on the blog later on as the Devils play the Buffalo Sabres later tonight.