Author: Dominic Tiano

Russia has had its share of scares at these World Juniors, including a hair-raising 4-3 overtime win over lowly Denmark in the quarter-final. But that doesn’t matter now.

Yegor Korshkov got the winner on a brilliant unassisted effort with 2:04 left in the second period. He faked a shot at the right point, performed a spinnerama, looped through the faceoff circle and cut in front to tuck the puck inside U.S. goalie Alex Nedeljkovic’s left post. It gave Korshkov his team-leading seventh point.

Against Finland, the swift-skating Russians will vie for their first gold medal since 2011 (Buffalo) and 14th of all-time, including the Soviet Union era. They took silver last year versus Canada.

The Americans will seek consolation in the bronze medal game versus Sweden. They have won bronze four times before (1986, 1992, 2007, 2011). It’s a disappointing outcome for a squad loaded with NHL-drafted talent.

The U.S. has now lost five straight World Junior games to Russia, including its last two quarter-finals in 2014 and 2015. More shockingly, it has never won a medal round game against Russia since the IIHF began using the playoff system in 1996.

Pavel Kraskovski had the other goal for Russia.

Christian Dvorak scored for the Americans, who are out of the running for their first gold medal since the 2013 World Juniors in Ufa, Russia.

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It was Finnish young guns versus Sweden’s solid defence, and it didn’t turned out to be similar fireworks of scoring as Finland’s game against Canada. But it was a thriller all the same, and in the end, Finns came out on top thanks to two second-period goal, 2-1.

Kasperi Kapanen and team captain Mikko Rantanen collected two assists each for Finland. Antti Kalapudas scored the game-winner. Kaapo Kahkonen made 21 saves for Finland.

“It was a close game, but I think we deserved to win,” Kapanen said.

“This was our best game in the tournament,” added Rantanen who had two points in the first five games of the tournament.

“Mikko [Rantanen] has been a big part of our team in the tournament, he’s a great leader, and it was nice to see him get rewarded for his work on the ice,” said Sebastian Aho.

Rasmus Asplund scored Sweden’s lone goal, Linus Soderstrom made 26 saves.

“It’s my other family in there [in the dressing room], and to let in two goals in this game is a failure,” Soderstrom said.

“We knew we needed a goal at the end, and everybody battled like dogs, but we couldn’t tie it. Power play was the key, they scored their first one right after their power play, and the other one was a power-play goal,” said Dmytro Timashov.

Any way you slice it, the Finland versus Sweden games always come down to one word: rivalry. The rivalry cuts through all aspects all life, not just hockey, but hockey is a great way to measure its intensity level. Even if the players on these teams didn’t feel the weight of a nation on their shoulders, they also knew each other well, having played against each other several times over the years.

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In the third of the quarter final games today, the winner would go on to face Sweden in the semi finals. And if this game didn’t have you on the edge of your seats regularly, I don’t what would.

Canada played a near perfect first period, getting on top of the Finnish defence, keep close gaps and causing turnovers. But it wan’t enough in the end to keep the high flying Finns at bay.

Travis Konecny got things started for Canada 5:21 into the period. John Quenneville puck up the puck behind the Finnish net, sent a pass out to the oncoming Konecny, and he fired home a one-timer for a 1-0 lead.

Dylan Strome would give Canada a 2-0 lead 5:38 later. Julien Gauthier would fire a shot that goaltender Veini Vehvilainen wasn’t able to coral. Strome pulled the puck back past the goaltender’s left pad and banged it home.

Patrik Laine would pull the Finns to within one with just 11 seconds remaining in the opening frame in a goal Canadian goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood would probably have back. Finland would outshoot Canada 9-8 in the period.

Finland would tie the game 6:18 into the period. Antti Kalapudas would enter the Canadian zone, but defenseman Brandon Hickey would fall and Kalapudas would face Blackwood head on. The Finnish shooter made no mistake and the game was even.

Less than a minute later the Canadians thought they had taken the lead. The officials on the ice ruled no goal and video review could not find conclusive evidence that the puck crossed the line.

But just 11 seconds after the review, Canada did take the lead as Jake Virtanen found Lawson Crouse who fired a shot past Vehvilainen. That would be the end of the Finnish goaltender who allowed 3 goals on 10 shots and he was replaced by Kaapo Kahkonen.

At 15:44, Finland’s lethal powerplay went to work. Aleksi Saarela scored a weak goal as he fired from a bad angle. Blackwood failed to hug his post and the shot found the hole, went off of Blackwood and into the back of the goal.

Finland would take it’s first lead just 1:33 later. Olli Juolevi, who had a very good game for the Finns and Saarela would set up Julius Nattinen who would beat Blackwood glove side and close the period out with the Finns up 4-3.

The third period would be the Mitch Marner show. Marner tied the game at 4 with a powerplay goal 3:14 into the period. Brayden Point moved in from the right, sent a pass to Marner who put in the backhander while cutting to the middle.

Finland would take a 5-4 lead at 4:21 when Laine sent a long, perfect pass to Jesse Puljujarvi streaking down the right side. Blackwood would make the original save but Sebastian Aho was Johnny on the spot to knock home the rebound.

Point and Marner would team up again at 5:57 of the period on the powerplay. Point found Marner who moved in, and with a little toe drag eluded a Finnish defender and fired a perfectly placed shot to beat Kahkonen. 

That’s when things fell apart for Canada with some selfish and untimely penalties.

While on a man advantage of their own, Virtanen would haul down a Finnish penalty killer As the Finns moved up ice, he took a second penalty by slashing the stick out of the hands of the Finnish player and Canada would be down a man for 3:05.

But it wasn’t over yet. Joe Hicketts would try and send the puck the length of the ice, but his high clear would go over the glass and now Canada would be short two men.

And Laine would make them pay on the powerplay before Virtanen’s second penalty was over. Canada would kill the remainder of the powerplay, and later pull Blackwood for an extra attacker, but could not get the equalizer.

Marner was named Canada’s player of the game while Laine was named Finland’s.

Hicketts, Strome and Matt Barzal were named Canada’s 3 best players for the tournament.

The second of the quarter finals was a lopsided score as the Swedes beat the Slovaks 6-0 to move on to the semi finals and face the winner of Finland and Canada.

Sweden would once again play without William Nylander as he is recovering from a concussion. Linus Soderstrom, who had the only shutout in the tournament coming into today, recorded his second shutout.

Adrian Kempe, Axel Holmstrom, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Jens Looke, all had two points apiece for the Swedes who have yet to lose a game.

Forsbacka Karlsson was named player of the game for Sweden while Adam Huska, who faced 50 shots in the game, was the player of the game for Slovakia.

Denmark goaltender Thomas Lillie was nothing short of brilliant in this game and gave the Danes the opportunity to put a scare into the Russians in the first quarterfinal game of the tournament. Earlier, Switzerland beat Belarus 5-1 in the first game of the best of three relegation round.

With the win, Russia goes on to face the winner of the USA and Czech Republic game.

Russia would get on the board first 2:49 into the game. Yegor Korshkov would pick up a loose puck behind the Denmark goal. His wraparound goal would beat Lillie and the Russians had a 1-0 they would take to the dressing room. They would outshoot the Danes 10-6 in the period.

The Danes would tie the game with an early goal of their own at 2:37 of the second period. Markus Jensen would take a Jeppe Holmberg pass, cut across goal of Alexander Georgiev and put home the equalizer.

Denmark would take a 2-1 lead at the 9:20 mark. Alexander Polunin would fire a shot from the left boards that Georgiev kicked out to his left. Unfortunately for the goaltender, it went right to Thomas Olsen who put it into a yawning cage.

The Danes would hold the lead going into the third. Once again, Russia outshot Denmark, this time 11-9.

Artur Lauta would tie the game 12:31 into the third. Alexander Dergachyov would find Lauta in front of the goal and his shot just beat Lillie’s glove.

The biggest scare for the Russians came with 5:24 remaining as the Danes took a 3-2 lead. Anders Krogsgaard would fire a shot from the point. Emil Christensen would coral the rebound and fire a high backhander into the net.

But the Danes’ hearts were broken with 44 seconds remaining and Georgiev on the Russian bench for the extra attacker. Vladislav Kamenev would beat Lillie high on the blocker and the game would go to overtime. The Russians outshot the Danes 20-4 in the third.

Exactly half way through the overtime, Ivan Provorov would gain the Danes’ zone. He sent a pass to Andrei Svetlakov. Kamenev, standing in front of the Danes’ net, made a subtle yet smart move taking a step back to get himself open. Svetlakov found him open and Kamenev fired home the winner.

Kamenev and Lillie were named the players of the game for their respective clubs.

Lillie, Matthias Lassen and Alexander True were named Denmark’s top three players of the tournament. Denmark will finish 8th.

The opponents for the playoff rounds were already determined before this game, but the Canadians needed a victory just for the sake of confidence.

For the first time in 18 years, the Canucks lost 2 games in the preliminary round. On the flip side, the Swedes won their pool for the ninth consecutive year and it was their 36th consecutive preliminary round victory.

Canada will now go on to face Finland in the playoff round while Sweden faces Slovakia – the squad that beat them last year for Bronze. The United States will meet the Czech Republic while Russia takes on Denmark. Belarus and Switzerland will battle it out in the relegation round.

Gustav Forsling was named player of the game for Sweden while Travis Konecny was picked as Canada’s player of the game. William Nylander sat out another game for Sweden, and why not? This was a meaningless game for the Swedes and they prevailed anyway.

Alexander Nylander would get the Swedes on the board first with a powerplay goal 4:37 into the period. Rasmus Asplund ripped a shot from the left circle. Mackenzie Blackwood kicked out a rebound that found its way to Nylander. The slick Swede would slide it past Blackwood’s skate.

Again on a powerplay, the Swedes would go up 2-0. Forsling would rip a wrister from the left faceoff circle past Blackwood’s glove at the 7:08 mark.

Canada would get some life at 15:51. Thomas Chabot fired a shot from the point that was stopped by Sweden’s goaltender Linus Soderstrom. Mitchell Stephens dashed towards the rebound and knocked in the rebound.

Axel Holmstrom sent a beautiful pass from behind the goal to Adrian Kempe in the right faceoff circle who got it off his blade immediately and beat Blackwood at 13:38 of the second for a 3-1 lead.

With 7:09 gone in the third period, Sweden would go up 4-1 when Anton Karlsson would put a backhander behind Blackwood as he was falling.

Canada got a little life when Mitch Marner scored on a 5 on 3 powerplay with 5:50 remaining. But that’s as close as they would get. Asplund would add an empty netter with 11 seconds remaining.