Blowouts Abound at WJC Day 2

It was the day that goals rained down in Edmonton. Three game were played with Sweden defeating the Czech Republic 7-1, Canada blowing Germany out of the water, 16-2 and the US knocking out Austria, 11-0. In all, the winners tonight outscored their opponents 34-3!

We will begin with the Swedish game where Jaromir Pytlik, the Devils prospect, had the primary assist on Jan Mysak’s goal, the first of the game 10:14 in to make it 1-0 Czech Republic. Ironically, it would come on the power play while another Devils prospect, Alexander Holtz, was serving a penalty for a late hit.

That lead, however, would not last.

Arvid Costmar tied things on the power play at the 10:46 mark of the first, just 32 seconds after Mysak’s goal. Albin Sundsvik would give the Swedes the 2-1 lead also on the power play, 9:08 into the second and Sweden was off and running.

Emil Heineman made it 3-1 while the Swedes were shorthanded and Theodor Niederbach made it 4-1 to close out the second frame.

Elmer Soderblom made it 5-1, again on the power play 5:04 into the third period. Oscar Bjerselius gave the Swedes the touchdown at 12:22 of the third and Noel Gunler added the extra point to make it 7-1 (our final) on the power play with about 3:30 to go in the game.

Sweden peppered Czech goaltending with 41 shots, 34 of which were turned aside. The Czechs had 25 shots but could only cash in on one as Swedish goaltending stopped 24 of them.

As for Holtz, he finished with five of Sweden’s 41 shots and an even plus/minus in 18:49 of total ice time.

Pytlik ended up with the assist for a point and one shot on goal. He was a minus-1 in 17:15 of ice time.

The Czechs next play Russia tomorrow while Sweden next matches up with Austria on Monday.

Now, before we move on to the next game, it is important to remember that in the World Junior Championship, goal differential carries heavy weight.

Canada squared up with Germany… and it wasn’t pretty for the Germans.

For Devils fans, however, Dawson Mercer ended the night with four points (two goals, two assists on three shots on goal and a plus-5 rating in 11:51 time on ice.

Mercer’s first goal came 7:27 into the first when he scored while Canada was shorthanded. He scored unassisted to make it 2-0 Canada following Kaiden Guhle’s goal earlier in the game.

The Germans kept things close early: John Peterka made it 2-1 midway through the first, but Canada got that right back when Philip Tomasino made it 3-1 about a minute later. Peyton Krebs made it 4-1 with two seconds left in the first frame, sending Canada into the first intermission sitting pretty.

Germany came out in the second period replacing goalie Arno Tiefensee with Jonas Gahr, but it did little for them. Mercer scored his second 2:40 into the period to make it 5-1 and the goals began to come fast and furious. Ryan Suzuki scored (with Mercer getting the lone assist), Alex Newhook scored, Newhook scored again, Mercer got the secondary assist on Tomasino’s second of the game. Dylan Cozens and Krebs, again, scored to end the second period with the score 11-1 Canada.

And it would continue.

Canada began the third swapping out Devon Levi for Dylan Garand in goal and the Canadians just kept rolling. Cozens scored again to make it 12-1. Cozens completed the hat trick to make it 13-1. Jacob Pelletier made it 14-1, Thomas Harley made it 15-1. Canada took a penalty. No big deal, Connor McMichael scored shorthanded and unassisted to make it 16-1.

Finally, Germany’s Florian Elias scored on the power play with less than 20 seconds to go in the game to make put this one to bed at 16-2 Canada.

The Canadians fired 44 shots at German goalies with them turning aside just 28. Germany could only muster 15 shots, 13 of which Canadian goalies got.

In the town where Leon Draisaitl plies his trade, Germany did not put in a good showing.

Canada next plays on December 27 against Slovakia.

Germany’s neighbor to the south was about to meet a fate just as brutal, from Canada’s southern neighbor to boot.

Austria would meet up with a United States team coming off of a rough loss to the Russians yesterday. They would take it out on the Austrians with an 11-0 drubbing.

Drew Helleson scored 15:31 into the game to give the US a 1-0 lead.

In the second, Trevor Zegras scored his first of three to make it 2-0. New Jersey-native John Frainacci scored less than thirty seconds after him to make it 3-0. Brendan Brisson scored on the power play to make it 4-0. Zegras got his second two minutes later to make it 5-0. Matthew Boldy scored less than thirty seconds after that to make it 6-0. Boldy made it 7-0 when he scored on the power play to round out the second frame.

Team USA continued to hammer out goals in the third when Brett Berard scored 2:25 into the new period to make it 8-0. Brisson scored again to make it 9-0 with Patrick Moynihan getting the secondary assist on his second of the game. Boldy completed his hat trick when he scored almost three minutes later (with Moynihan picking up his second helper of the game with the secondary here as well). That made it 10-0. Sam Colangelo finally wrapped things up by scoring with 15 seconds in the game to make it 11-0.

Then a very scary moment for Devils and Team USA fans alike. With about 1:07 to go in the contest, Austria’s Philipp Wimmer took a run at Moynihan in open ice, hitting him high on the head. Wimmer was ejected with a game misconduct and, I would assume, will see further discipline from the IIHF. Moynihan left down the tunnel, but with so little time to go in the game, it could have just been precautionary. We should find out more about Moynihan’s status. Luckily, the US does not play again until the 29th against the Czech Republic.

The Americans fired an astounding 73 shots on Austrian goaltending, who turned aside 62 of them. Austria had a paltry ten shots, which were all nabbed in Dustin Wolf’s shutout.

Before leaving the game, deuces were wild for Moynihan. He had the two assists for two points, two shots on goal and was a plus-2. He did that in 11:34 of ice time.

We will see you back here tomorrow as the Devils will be represented in the Canada/Slovakia game as well as Czech Republic versus Russia. See you then!

First Day of Action Complete at 2021 World Juniors

Merry Christmas to all celebrating! I hope you had a good one in these challenging times.

Today marked the opening of the 2021 World Junior Championship in Edmonton, Alberta at Rogers Place, and it was an exciting slate of games featuring Devils prospects.

The opener featured Slovakia and Switzerland in a duel. The Slovaks won a close 1-0 contest to kick off the festivities.

In the second game of the day, Germany faced off with Finland and the Finns came away with a 5-3 victory.

Following those two Group A games, the spotlight changed to Group B and the first game to feature Devils prospects: the United States versus Russia.

This game actually featured three prospects, in Shakir Mukhammadullin and Arseni Gritsyuk of the Russians and Patrick Moynihan of the USA.

The Americans fell in their opener, 5-3 after nearly forcing a late comeback.

Vasili Ponomaryov opened the scoring when he beat US goaltender Spencer Knight off assist from Artemi Knyazev and Kirill Kirsanov. That goal came just 8:07 into the game.

The Americans would tie things with about six minutes to go in the first period when Cam York (the scoring was changed later and York did not ultimately get credit for the goal) scored to tie things. Cole Caufield and Matthew Boldy had the helpers on that goal. The game would head into the first intermission tied at one apiece.

Russia would retake the lead just 3:12 into the second frame when Zakhar Bardakov scored from Maxim Groshev. It was now 2-1 Russia and things would begin to fall apart for the United States at that point.

At the 11:08 mark, as Russia was just coming off of killing a penalty, Ponomaryov connected for his second of the game, unassisted, to make it 3-1 Russia. A little over a minute later, at the 12:15 mark of the second, Ilya Safonov scored unassisted to make it 4-1. The goal came when Knight misplayed a dump-in by the Russians, turning it over while trying to clear it up ice and giving it right to Safonov, who scored.

Safonov’s goal would chase US goalie Knight in favor of Dustin Wolf. Wolf would end up pitching a shutout as the Americans would begin a comeback in the third. At the 9:57 mark, John Farinacci got the US within two when he scored from Drew Helleson and Bobby Brink. This goal came off of a mad scramble in front of the Russian net with Farinacci eventually beating goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

Trevor Zegras made things close, when he cut the Russian lead to one with less than three minutes left while the US was on the power play and had Wolf pulled for a sixth attacker. York had the lone assist on the goal that made it 4-3.

The Americans would again pull Wolf following that goal, but Yegor Chinakhov polished things off for the Russians when he scored into the empty net from Rodion Amirov and Marat Khusnutdinov. That gave us our final of 5-3.

Russia had not beaten the US at the World Juniors in five consecutive meetings, dating back to 2016, but took the duke tonight.

Askarov stopped 23 of the Americans’ 26 shots while Knight and Wolf stopped 19 of 24 Russian shots.

Mukhamadullin was a plus-2 over 21:09 of total ice time while Gritsyuk had three shots on goal and was a plus-1 in 11:11 of ice time.

For the Americans, Moynihan had a shot on goal and was a minus-2 in just 8:48 of ice time.

Next up, tomorrow, Alexander Holtz and Sweden will take on Jaromir Pytlik and the Czech Republic and the USA will face Austria in Group B action while Canada will begin their gold medal defense against Germany in Group A. Dawson Mercer will suit up for the Canadians.

We will see you tomorrow with that recap and, once again, happy holidays to all!