TUESDAY ROUNDUP: FLYERS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Today is the final day of the preliminary round of the 2013 IIHF World Championships. The top four teams in each bracket will move on the medal round quarterfinals. The last place finisher (Slovenia in one bracket, and Austria in the other) will be relegated to Division IA next year, being replaced by Kazakhstan and Italy in the 2014 Worlds. The rest of the teams will simply finish up the preliminaries and return next year.
There is a medal round spot still up for grabs today when
Jakub Voracek and Team Czech Republic take on Team Norway. The Czechs enter today in fifth place, one point behind the fourth-place Norwegians.
Monday's Results
* Team Canada defeated Slovenia, 4-3, in overtime. The Canadians reverted to an early tournament pattern of taking the bottom-ranked teams too lightly. The NHL-star laden side endured a terrible first period. The Canadians trailed winless Slovenia by a 2-0 score after the opening period and 3-2 at the second intermission.
Steven Stamkos rescued his team from the same fate Team Russia suffered in losing to France last week. The Tampa Bay superstar scored a pair of goals, including the winner in overtime. Matt Duchene and Brenden Dillon also tallied for Canada.
Flyers center
Claude Giroux assisted on the first Stamkos goal, notched just 50 seconds after Duchene had cut the deficit to 2-1. Neither
Matt Read nor
Wayne Simmonds figured in the scoring in this match. Meanwhile, defenseman
Luke Schenn served a one-game IIHF suspension stemming from a checking-from-behind incident in the game against the Czech Republic.
* Flyers defenseman
Oliver Lauridsen gritted his way through a left hip flexor strain to play 20:30 and block several shots in Denmark's 3-2 regulation win over Belarus. The win was important for the Danes because it assured them of a spot in the 2014 Worlds even if Slovenia had been successful in its upset bid against Canada. Dallas Stars defenseman Philip Larsen scored a goal for the Danes, along with Nicklas Jensen and Morten Green.
*
Ilya Bryzgalov had the day off in Russia's 8-4 win over Slovakia. Colorado netminder Semyon Varlamov got the start.
Tuesday's games (Times in EDT)
9:15 AM - Germany vs. France: Despite a strong performance in his team's last game, Phantoms forward
Marcel Noebels will be a healthy scratch today for the fourth time in seven games. Today is likely the Germans' final appearance in this year's tourney.
10:15 AM - Czech Republic vs. Norway: The Czechs have been less-than-impressive in all but one of their six games to date, and need a win to bypass the Norwegians in the standings and earn a medal-round spot. Flyers forward
Jakub Voracek has a team-best five points (one goal, four assists) and team-worst minus-five in six games.
2:15 PM - Sweden vs. Denmark: Flyers defenseman
Erik Gustafsson leads his team with an average 23:12 of ice time per game. Even with Vancouver defenseman Alex Edler and the Sedin twins set to join Tre Kronor just before the medal round, Gustafsson and defense partner Henrik Tallinder will continue to play important roles in their team's medal hopes. Today will be the final tourney game for Denmark and Lauridsen.
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Don't Overlook Alt
Acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes along with goaltender Brian Boucher in exchange for out-of-favor minor leaguer Luke Pither, defenseman
Mark Alt joined the Adirondack Phantoms for the final six games of the 2012-13 American Hockey League regular season. Alt's tryout contract with the Phantoms and NHL entry level deal with the Flyers (which kicks in next season) marked the end of the 21-year-old's collegiate career after three seasons at the University of Minnesota.
Paired with veteran defenseman Andreas Lilja, Alt impressed with his both his defensive ability and puck skills. Lilja, who will be returning to Sweden next season after compiling 580 NHL regular season games and 66 playoff matches during his career, gave Alt a glowing recommendation after their short time working together.
“I think he’s going to be something special," said Lilja to The Sartogian. "I think he’s really, really good.”
Alt is the son of former Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman John Alt. Mark, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 205 pounds, was a two-sport star at Cretin-Derham Hall High School, quarterbacking the football team and playing defense in ice hockey. His skills were such that he a choice between scholarship offers to play college football (including one from his father's alma mater, University of Iowa) or college hockey.
It has only been in the last three years that the younger Alt has devoted his year-round attention to ice hockey. Prior to playing his freshman season at Minnesota, Carolina drafted him in the second round (53rd overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft.
Alt presents an intriguing package of skills. Although he is not the smoothest of skaters, he is a hybrid of a puck-mover and defensive defenseman who makes a good first pass and does not shy away from contact. He has a heavy righthanded shot but can work on releasing it faster and more accurately.
Alt's offensive numbers in his junior season at Minnesota took a step backward from the previous year. As a sophomore, he had five goals and 22 points in 43 games. This year, he did not score a goal and had seven assists in 39 games. However, what the raw numbers don't show is that he took on bigger defensive responsibilities.
With fellow junior Nate Schmidt (now with the Hershey Bears) and sophomore Detroit Red Wings draftee Ben Marshall carrying the load offensively, Alt focused primarily on continuing to refine his all-around game. When he joined the Phantoms, Alt had one goal and one assist.
Alt is probably not going to be in the mix to seriously compete for an NHL job with the Flyers out of training camp next year. He needs some AHL seasoning. Even so, his name deserves to be mentioned among the stronger candidates to eventually land an NHL job.
I don't know the answer to why Carolina gave up on their former second-round pick at age 21. Perhaps they were hoping for more from his first two-plus college seasons. My best guess is that because the Flyers were doing Carolina something of a favor by accepting a cap hit on Boucher even when he was assigned to the minor leagues, Paul Holmgren asked Jim Rutherford for Alt in return.
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