2015 WJC Archive: The Truth About Jack Eichel USA Announces Preliminary Roster USA Injury Update Questions Abound for Team USA as Selection Camp Begins Team USA Selection Camp Video Podcast Santini Learning Through Adversity The Curious Case of Miles Wood USA Defeats BU, 5-2; Reduces Roster to 27 USA Defeats Germany 5-2; Reduces Roster to 26 Eichel Named Captain of Team USA USA Defeats Sweden, 10-5; Reduces Roster to 24 USA Makes Final Cut; Faces Finland Friday Afternoon USA Defeats Finland 2-1 in a Shootout to Open WJC Team USA Podcast & Off Day Notes WJC Podcast with TSN's Mark Masters: Canadian Perspective USA Defeats Germany 6-0 USA Defeats Slovakia 3-0 USA vs CAN: NYE Showdown USA Takes On Russia in the Quarterfinal
Watch and listen as Dave Starman and I discuss USA's 2-1 shootout win over Finland at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal...
********** Watch and listen as Mark Masters gives us some insight on Team Canada at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal...
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**Note: I know this is the wrong logo, but non-country specific pictures are tough to come by in these parts.**
Two dominating performances by the top seeds in each group at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, plus two "upsets" as both #3 seeds defeated #2 seeds to advance to the semifinal and the opportunity to play for a medal.
In the first quarter final, Russia defeated USA 3-2 in deja vu fashion on the strength of two power play goals for the second year in a row. USA was plagued by penalties and played half the first period down a man...not exactly the best way to win a hockey game. Afterward, head coach Mark Osiecki said, "The standard of penalty in this game was drastically different from the Canada game and it's tough for the guys to deal with that on the fly." Team USA responded in the second period and especially in the third when they put up 20 shots on goal to Russia's five, but by then the damage had been done.
In the second quarterfinal, Sweden and Finland went toe-to toe in the first 40 minutes before Sweden pulled away in the third for a 6-3 win to advance. After an emotional "must-win" game against Germany in the final game of the preliminary round, the Finns had a hard time bringing their game up to compete against the Swedes - not surprising considering inconsistency had been the Achilles heel of this team. It's that inconsistency that put them in the virtual must win situation and had people asking, what happens if the host country doesn't qualify for the tournament? The good news is that Finland qualified and will participate in Helsinki for the 2016 tournament, the bad news is they will not repeat as gold medalists.
In the next quarterfinal, Slovakia defeated Czech Republic 3-0 in another rivalry match up. The Czechs had rallied the troops as they were, in fact, in a must win situation in their final game of the preliminary round against Russia to not only advance to the quarterfinals, but also jump from fifth to second in Group B, but much like the Finns, they weren't able to bring that same effort against Slovakia who had two days off before the game.
In the final quarterfinal of the day, Canada defeated the tournament darlings, Denmark, 8-0. It was an expected result, but still a bittersweet game for both the Danes and the fans in Toronto. With Canada playing in Group A in Montreal, the fans at the ACC adopted the underdog Danes and rooted for them all week as they took Russia and Czech Republic to bonus hockey and defeated Switzerland in a shootout. As one Canadian said, "It's been fun rooting for them. It's a shame we have to be the ones to beat them and kick them out of the tournament." The Danish players were still very appreciative of the support as shown by their very well received stick salute at the end of the game.
In the relegation round, Switzerland defeated Germany 5-2. They will play again tonight at 7pm in a do or die situation for Germany in this best-of-three series.
The semifinals are set.
Sweden vs Russia 4pm ET Canada vs Slovakia 8pm ET
Both games will be shown live on NHL Network and TSN.
As always, follow me on twitter for the latest updates from the games and pretty pictures from Montreal and now Toronto. I will also be going behind the scenes at the ACC the next two days in hopes of giving you a bit of a different perspective of these games.
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Julie
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