USA Takes On Russia in the Quarterfinal (nhl)

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USA Takes On Russia in the Quarterfinal

By Julie Robenhymer

Jan 1, 2015 • 10:37 am

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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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So much to write about from the last day of preliminary action at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. Here's the short of it:

No matter what Denmark - which has become the adopted "home" team for fans in Toronto as they were the underdogs of all underdogs in this tournament but still took Russia, Czech Republic and Switzerland to overtime - and Slovakia, who had both finished their preliminary games on Tuesday, were in the quarterfinals. For the Danes, it was just a matter of 3rd or 4th.

Switzerland needed to earn at least one point against Sweden to ensure a spot in the quarterfinal, but they lost 5-1 and needed to hope Czech Republic didn't defeat Russia in regulation. The Czechs were facing the relegation round with only two points after defeating Denmark in overtime. Even if they beat Russia in bonus hockey, they'd be in a three way tie with Switzerland and Denmark and would lose the tiebreaker and still be sent to the relegation round, but with a win in regulation they'd jump from 5th to 2nd in Group B....and they pulled it off! A 4-1 win over Russia punched their ticket to the quarterfinal and a date with rivals Slovakia.

In Group A, USA and Canada battled for first place while Finland and Germany battled for 4th and the last spot in the quarterfinal. Canada won 5-3 for a date with Denmark, while USA will take on Russia in a rematch of last year's quarterfinal game. The Finns finally got their act together and earned their first win of the tournament as they beat Germany - who didn't get their first shot on goal until 15 minutes into the 1st period - 2-0 to earn a date with rival Sweden in the quarterfinal.

Finland faced an interesting predicament as they are the host country for next year's World Junior Championship and were two losses away from being relegated. There was a lot of speculation as to what would happen if that possibility turned into a reality, but here's your answer. The host country is only given an automatic bid in the men's division. Had Finland not qualified for the tournament next year, they would have the option to defer hosting until 2022 - the next tournament without a host yet - and the IIHF would review recent hosts to come up with a replacement location, which would have likely been Ufa. There was also the possibility that they swap with a future host so they wouldn't have to wait eight years, but all of that is a moot point as the Finns won last night and have now qualified for next year. The Finnish federation and organizing committee let out a huge sigh of relief once that final horn sounded....maybe that's why it's so windy here in Montreal today.

Speaking of relegation, Germany faces Switzerland in a best-of-three for the right to compete next year in Helsinki. The winner stays in the top tier. The loser will go down to Division I and will be replaced by Belarus, who won this year's DI tournament.

Now we have a quarterfinal full of rivalries - USA & Russia, Sweden & Finland, and Czech Republic & Slovakia - with the Canadians taking on the tournament darlings, Denmark.

Team USA didn't skate today, but they did have meetings and go over video before touring the Canadiens locker room (There is sure to be a video posted by USA Hockey on this and based on the parts I saw, it should be pretty good...keep an eye out for it on my twitter feed!). I spoke with a couple players afterward and in regard to tomorrow's game, those that were here last year shared their thoughts on where they think things went wrong for them and it revolved around not being able to move past their New Year's Eve loss to Canada. So, that was a big point of emphasis today. They're still in the tournament and they can still win gold and that's all that matters. When I mentioned the difficult path to gold - Russia and potentially Sweden and Canada - they all smiled and said how much they'd love to win that way, but that they won't have the opportunity to do it unless they beat Russia and that's what they're focused on.

I also spoke with Zach Werenski (Michigan, DE15) and Miles Wood (Nobles, NJD), two guys we haven't seen too much of in the mixed zone here in Montreal, if at all. For the 17-year-old Werenski and the high school playing Wood, this tournament has been eye-opening.

For Werenski, his welcome to the World Junior Championship moment came in their first game against Finland, "I got walked by one of their forwards and had to take a penalty and while I was sitting in the box I said, 'Ok...these are the best of the best and I need to raise my game.' I thought I was a pretty good player, but after this week I know there is so much more that I can work on and improve on and I'm excited to get back to Michigan and get after it."

For Wood, who is still excited about all the free USA Hockey apparel the players have received, his welcome to the World Junior Championship moment came last night during the Canada game, "I play in high school. I'm used to 50 people in the stands, not 18,000! Just looking up and seeing all those people and having 98% of them cheering against us...it was amazing! I'm so blessed to have this opportunity and be on this team. I'm going to make the most of it."

USA takes on Russia at 1pm ET, Sweden and Finland at 3pm ET, Czech Republic and Slovakia at 5pm ET and Canada and Denmark at 8pm ET. All games will air on NHL Network (SWE-FIN will be tape delayed) and TSN.

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Julie JulieLovesHockey@gmail.com Instagram Facebook free hit counters Be sure to like HockeyBuzz on Facebook!

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