The last day of the preliminary round of the 2015 IIHF World Juniors was action packed as The United States took on Canada in a border countries rivalry. Sweden looked to finish perfect against Switzerland. The Czech Republic and Russia played in a game that decided the fate of other teams as well as themselves. While defending champs Finland looked to win their first game of the tournament as they took on Germany.
Switzerland 1, Sweden 5
Sweden looked to stay perfect through the tournament and with a 5-1 win against Switzerland they easily do. Switzerland scored first on a goal by Rathgeb. Yet Sweden continued to dominate on the power play as Adrian Kempe netted the goal to tie the game up at 1-1. After that the Swedish team never looked back.
In the second period alone Lindblom netted a hat trick on three straight goals. Two of those goals were on the power play for Sweden. A goal, power play mind you, by Looke made it 5-1. An uneventful third period lead to the win for Sweden who went 4-0 in their games. William Nylander recorded 2 assists and Detroit Red Wings prospect Axel Holmstrom also had two assists and Christopher Ehn also had an assist.
The United States 3, Canada 5
In biggest game of the day, the United States and Canada played one of the most exciting games of the tournament. Of all teams, these two were probably the most evenly matched teams and the scoreless first period showed it. Beautiful saves by goalies Thatcher Demko and Eric Comrie kept both teams in the game.
The second period is where it all really got started. Canada’s Max Domi registered the first goal of the game making it 1-0 (shown below, was a beautiful goal) and then Morrissey added another making it 2-0. The United States struck back thanks to Anthony Deangelo to cut Canada’s lead in half. Canada went into the third leading. At the start of the third the teams managed to play 8 full minutes without a whistle and the United States killed off a power play that came from the second.
Curtis Lazar scored to make it 3-1 Canada halfway through the third. It wasn’t until the last two minutes that things got really crazy. Dylan Larkin, yeah that kid the Detroit Red Wings drafted, found the back of the net to make it 3-2. Canada answered as Samson Reinhart made it 4-2 after a sloppy USA play and an empty net. With a little under a minute left Larkin scored again to inch closer 3-4. Yet another bad turn over and Domi goes on to net a goal in the empty net to give Canada a 5-3 win.
The Czech Republic 4, Russia 1
The Czech Republic had to defeat the Russia in regulation and advance to the quarter-finals. If they couldn’t win in regulation or had lost lost any which way they would be forced to suffer the ignominy of playing a best-of-three in the Relegation Round.
For the Czechs this must have been the spark under them as they got out to an early 2-0 lead against the Russians. Goals were scored by Patrik Zdrahal and Paval Zacha. Russia came back to score their lone goal by Ivan Barbashyov. The Czech Republic added two more goals from Zdrahal and Ondrej Kase to give the Czechs a 4-1 wn.
Finland 2 Germany 0
In Finlands last chance to win a game in round robin play. The Fins got off to an early 1-0 lead after a Julius Honka goal. In the second Mikko Rantanen added another goal to give his team a 2-0 lead. That was all the Fins needed as they went on to win their first game 2-0. Finnish goalie Ville Hussa made 12 saves and got the shutout.
What is up next
The World Juniors will be off for New Years day. Teams will pick up play on the 2nd of January and here are the matchups slated for the return.
Switzerland vs Germany 11am (relegation round)
USA vs Russia 1pm
Sweden vs Finland 3pm
Czech Republic vs Slovakia 5pm
Canada vs Denmark 8pm