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2020 World Juniors Continue with Exciting Slate of Games

The 2020 World Junior Championship continued today in Czech Republic with three games featuring a Devils immediate connection and one to the team’s past.

We begin in Group A with Sweden and Kazakhstan. Sweden won this one 6-2 at the Werk Arena to win yet another preliminary round game at the WJC.

Nikola Pasic had an assist and a shot on goal in 14:18 of total ice time.

The Swedes scored at the 15:12 mark of the first to break the scoreless tie when Samuel Fagemo scored. In the second, they scored early and often starting when Fagemo notched his second on the power play at 2:37 in to give them a 2-0 lead. Linus Oberg scored at 4:08 to make it 3-0 and the Swedes were off to the races.

Nils Hoglander scored on the power play at 7:40 to make it 4-0 then Jonatan Berggren scored another Swedish power play goal at 10:57 to make it 5-0. Pasic had his assist, the secondary, on this goal.

The Kazakhs broke the shutout when Oleg Boiko scored at 11:38 unassisted to make it 5-1. But the Swedes got that one back at 11:13 of the third when Lucas Raymond scored to make it 6-1.

Maxim Musorov scored with just over six minutes to go in the game to make it 6-2 but it was too little too late for Kazakhstan.

Swedish goaltender Jesper Eliasson got 17 of the 19 Kazakhstan shots while Vladislav Nurek got 29 of the 35 shot barrage from the Swedes.

Sweden next plays tomorrow night against the Slovaks while Kazakhstan is done with prelim play and will be likely playing int the relegation series against the last place finisher of Group B. The Kazakhs finished without a win or a point and had seven goals for and 21 against.

Staying in Group A, Switzerland took on Slovakia. Akira Schmid again did not dress for the Swiss, with Luca Hollenstein and Stephane Charlin getting the goaltending duties. The Swiss won 7-2 and will next play against Finland tomorrow to finish off their group play.

In the final game featuring Devils’ prospects, Canada took on Germany in Group B at the Ostravar Arena. Ty Smith finished the game with a plus-1 rating in the Canadians’ 4-1 win. He had 19:41 of total ice time to finish second among Canadian defensemen behind only Bowen Byram (who tallied 20:54 of total ice).

Kevin Bahl had an assist and two total shots on goal and a plus-2 plus/minus in 15:24 time on ice.

Nolan Foote got Canada on the board first at 11:50 of the first period (Bahl with the lone assist).

In the second period, Liam Foudy took a tripping penalty 6:52 into the frame and then redeemed himself at 12:24 when he scored from Ty Dellandrea and Jared McIsaac to make it 2-0 Canada.

Calen Addison scored on the power play at 14:01 with Germany’s Dennis Lobach in the box for slashing. Foote and Dyaln Cozens had the assists on the goal that made it 3-0.

Germany would get on the board at 58:53 when Yannik Valenti scored from Tim Stutzle and Justin Schutz. Canada’s Jacob Bernard-Docker had taken a four-minute double minor for a high-stick.

So, with that, Germany pulled goalie Hendrik Hane with 30 seconds to go for the extra attacker. Dellandrea scored into the empty net (assists to Foudy and McIsaac) with ten seconds to go in the game to make it 4-1 and ice the game for Canada.

Canada goalie Joel Hofer made 22 stops on 26 saves. Canada had 20 shots on goal (including the one into the empty net) and Hane made 18 saves on the night.

Canada plays their final group round game against the Czech Republic tomorrow. Germany has Russia to finish out their Group B schedule.

The Canadian win set up an interesting must-win for the US against the Czechs. Patrik Elias is serving as an assistant coach with the Czechs and they were facing off with the Americans.

The Americans needed a win to finish no worse than second in the group and they got it.

The Czechs had a goal waved off with 13:02 left in the third period while down 3-2 and on the power play. The goal was called good on the ice, but review showed goalie interference and when the Czechs used their coach’s challenge, that upheld the decision that it was no goal. However, on the same power play, which continued after the goal was called back, the Czechs tied the game up.

Once regulation expired, it only took 3:14 into the five-minue three-on-three OT for Alex Turcotte to made a beautiful pass and Cole Caufield to finish for the US to win 4-3.

The Americans end group play with two wins and an overtime win against one loss for eight points. They had 17 goals for and 13 against for a plus-4 goal differential. As noted, they can finish no lower than second, but Canada can still win the group with a victory tomorrow. The Canadians do hold the tie-breaker over the Americans due to the head-to-head win they got over them in group play.

We will keep you posted as the group play wraps up in the World Juniors and we head on to the medal round.

In other Devils related news, Kyle Palmieri will be going to the All-Star Game in January in St. Louis as the Devils’ representative. It will be Palmieri’s second trip to the All-Star Game as he also represented the Devils last season in San Jose, subbing for an injured Taylor Hall.

There is also the NHL All-Star Last Men In voting to get one more player for each Division. All teams are represented in the ballot and it is basically a fan vote to get the final player for each Divisional team. We will see if the Devils will join St. Louis Blues, the Boston Bruins, the Tornoto Maple Leafs, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets and the Columbus Blue Jackets as teams with two players representing them in the All-Star Game.

Congratulations to Palms on this honor and here’s hoping he showcases his scoring touch in St. Louis next month.

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World Juniors: Switzerland Defeated; Canada Blown Out

Sorry this is up so late, I was attending the Princeton-Quinnipiac game in Princeton and did not have the time to write this up before leaving. I did, however, get to catch most of the Canada-Russia game before heading out the door.

Sweden continued their winning streak in group play, making it 50 in a row as they defeated Switzerland 5-2 and Canada was blown out of the water, losing 6-0 to the Russians in day three of World Junior Championship action.

We begin in Group A with the Swiss and the Swedes. Akira Schmid did not play in this game as he was again the third goalie up in the press box. Both Luca Hollenstein and Stephane Charlin saw game action today in the Swiss loss.

The Devils prospect who did see action was Sweden’s Nikola Pasic. Pasic ended the game with a shot on goal in just 9:43 of ice time.

Sweden took a two-goal lead within the first 9:58 of the first period. Samuel Fagemo scored 3:25 in (assist to Victor Soderstrom) and then again at 9:58 (assist to Nils Hoglander) to put Sweden out to a quick 2-0 lead. Both goals came at even strength.

The Swedes continued their onslaught in the second when Hoglander scored 1:28 into the middle frame. Nils Lundkvist and Rasmus Sandin had the assists to make it 3-0 Sweden.

It became 4-0 when Karl Henriksson scored at the 9:02 mark (Lucas Raymond and Adam Ginning had the assists). It was after this goal that Hollenstein was pulled in favor of Charlin for Switzerland.

But the Swedes just kept it up. At 13:02, Switzerland’s Kyen Sopa was called for a hook and Sweden was on the power play. Raymond scored his second of the evening here to make it 5-0. Jonatan Berggren and Alexander Holtz had the assists. Sweden was now fully in control of the game.

At the 19:17 mark of the second, Ginning was called for boarding and received a 10-minute misconduct penalty to go with it. On the ensuing power play, the Swiss finally got on the board with Gilian Kohler scoring from Valentin Nussbaumer and Janis Moser. The goal came at 19:47 of the second.

The Swiss would tack on one more when Nico Gross scored 14:09 into the third (assists to Kohler and Matthew Verboon), but it was too little too late for them. Sweden had the 5-2 win.

Hollenstein and Charlin combined to make 22 saves on 27 Swedish shots. While Hugo Alnefelt made 25 saves on 27 Swiss shots.

Switzerland next faces Slovakia on Monday, the 30th. We will see if Schmid gets to suit up for that one. Sweden and Pasic next play on Monday against Kazakhstan in the earlier game.

Now on to Group B action and Russia-Canada.

This one was a disaster from a Canadian standpoint and it resulted in the most lopsided loss the Canadians have ever suffered at a World Junior Championship. Basically, anything that could go wrong for Canada did go wrong for Canada.

Danil Misyul did get in for Russia and was a plus-1 in 17:14 of ice time. For Canada, Ty Smith was a minus-4 in 16:48 while Kevin Bahl was a minus-2 with one shot in 14:16 of ice time.

Consensus first-overall pick in this year’s Draft, Alexis Lafreniere was injured in the second period with an apparent ankle injury when he was cutting towards the net and his skate got caught in Russian goaltender Amir Miftakhov’s pads. He was spun around and seemed to favor his ankle. He left the game and did not return, being helped off of the ice.

Also, very late in the third period, with about 13 seconds to go, Smith was cross checked in the head by Yegor Sokolov. Sokolov received two minutes for checking to the head and neck area and a ten-minute misconduct. No word on Smith’s condition, if he is okay or not, but we should get more word when Canada next plays.

The first goal of the game came just 1:44 in when Alexander Khovanov scored unassisted. Pavel Dorofeyev scored at the 10:14 mark (from Nikita Alexandrov and Danil Zhuravlyov) to make it 2-0 Russia.

At 13:43, Nikita Rtishev scored on the power play from Danil Pylenkov and Ilya Kruglov to make it 3-0.

Alexandrov scored 2:18 into the second period to make it 4-0 (assist to Dmitri Voronkov) to end Canadian goalie Nicolas Daws’ night. He was pulled in favor of Joel Hofer after that.

Sokolov scored at the 13:09 mark on Hofer to make it 5-0 (from Yegor Zamula and Grigori Denisenko). Denisenko ended the scoring at the 16:24 mark of the second (with Alexander Khovanov getting the lone helper).

Six Russian goals, six different Russian goal scorers.

This loss by Canada puts Group B in a very unique situation. For the first time since the current format was introduced to the World Juniors in 1996, all teams in the group will have one win and one loss. It was going to be a tough group coming in, but that is something altogether different. Russia currently leads the group on goal differential (nine for/four against) while the USA stands in second (10 goals for/nine against), the Czechs in third (seven for/seven against), Germany in fourth (seven for/nine against) and Canada in last (six goals for/10 against).

We will see how things begin to shake out in Group B tomorrow when the Russians meet the Americans. Canada next plays on Monday against the Germans.