Throughout the World Juniors tournament, we’ll be keeping track of all the action and bringing you all of the results in one place.
Sweden vs. Slovakia
This year’s tournament kicked off with a full slate of action, and it certainly began with some excitement. While it was a bit of a sleepy start to this first game of the day — both teams bringing a nice bit of pace but taking a little bit before they were able to ramp up their shot generation — once they got rolling this was quite a tight and competitive outing. The Slovaks got the first good chance of the game when Flyers prospect Jack Berglund was called for an objectively pretty weak holding call, but the Swedish penalty killers came up with a big stop (something that the Slovaks were able to match at the end of the first period).
The second period, though, is when things really began to pick up steam — this one was something of a penalty heavy affair, and after each team managed to kill off one respective penalty early in the frame, the Swedes were able to break through for two power play goals, the first from Anton Frondell and the second from Victor Eklund, and we were just getting started. Things had a chance to get really out of hand on the Slovaks as the Swedes were continuing to tilt the ice in their favor, and drew another holding call to follow up that second goal allowed, but after coming up with a huge partial kill, they were given their own prime opportunity, with Lucas Pettersson taking a hooking call to kill the rest of the power play, and then Milton Gastrin was called for a trip just 24 seconds later to give the Slovaks the advantage, and they took advantage, with Tomas Pobezal finally breaking through for them to bring them back within one.
The Swedes were working hard to bear down after the second intermission and put things away without incident, but that was going to prove to be easier said than done. That is, for a time it looked as though they had restored their two-goal lead but it was pulled off the board on a goaltender interference call, and the Slovaks took that swing in momentum and ran with it, and Tomas Tomik was able to put away the tying goal shortly thereafter.
The Swedes did well to avoid getting flustered, and found a counterpunch just over five minutes later, and Ivar Stenberg pulled them back ahead on his first goal of the tournament, into a lead that the Swedes were able to hold onto for real this time.
Final: Sweden 3 – Slovakia 2
Next game up (SWE): Dec 28, 2:00 ET vs. Switzerland
Next game up (SVK): Dec 27, 2:00 ET Germany
Denmark vs. Finland
If the first game of the day began with something of a feeling out period, there was no such thing delivered in the second of the afternoon. The Finns came out with some serious jump, and were able to put up two goals inside the first two and a half minutes of play (just 30 seconds between them) care of Roope Vesterinen and Onni Kalto. A comfortable edge in momentum was being established for the Finns, but the Danes weren’t going to go away quietly — they only registered two shots on goal in the period, but they were able to still convert on one of them, as William Bundgaard was able to turn a hardworking play into their first goal of the game. Now, the Finns were pretty quickly able to get that one back to maintain their two-goal lead going into the intermission, but the will showed by the Danish squad was commendable all the same.
It was a bit of a shame, that considered, that things then got really out of hand for them in the second period. Though they were able to double up their shot total in the middle frame while also holding the Finns to just eight shots, three of those turned into goals for the Finns, as a pair of even strength goals from Aatos Koivu and a second from Vesterinen bookended a power play goal for Joona Saarelainen. The game was pretty well and truly out of reach for the Danes at that point, and the focus for the Finns became just locking it down through the final period of action. They still poured on a good number of chances (15 shots in total) but weren’t able to find any further scoring, while on the flip side, they held the Danes to just four shots in the period, but one of them turned into a power play goal for Anton Linde, which did not sway the outcome of the game, but did get to play spoiler on the Finns’ would-be perfect period.
Final: Finland 6 – Denmark 2
Next game up (FIN): Dec 28, 4:30 ET vs. Latvia
Next game up (DEN): Dec 27, 8:30 ET vs. Czechia
Germany vs. USA
The Americans have come into this tournament in search of the ever-elusive three-peat, and while they were able to get off to a good start in their round robin debut, the German team certainly didn’t make it easy on them. The Americans did come out with some good jump and were able to jump out to a three goal lead to start the first period — the scoring got started after Teddy Stiga hit the post and Max Plante was able to put away the rebound, and then Chase Reid and Will Horcoff were both able to capitalize on nice feeds up from below the goal line to kick start their scoring plays.
It was looking like the US might just be primed to run away with this one, but the Germans found some pushback before the first period was out, as Timo Kose was able to get them on the board late in the first period, and give them some jump that they were able to carry through into the middle frame. Early in the second, Simon Seidl was able to put one away for his first goal of the tournament, and suddenly the Amercans’ lead was dwindling to just one goal, and nervous moments were settling in, if only for the fans. The back and forth action continued to unfold through much of this period, as Will Zellers was able to restore the two-goal lead for the Americans, but the Germans were quickly able to get that one back (Lenny Boos scored under a minute later), but Zellers stepped up again to bring the lead back to two goals. Cole Eiserman was able to deliver a bit more insulation for the Americans later in the period, but it turned out that it wasn’t wholly needed — the Germans had expended all of their scoring, and they didn’t have an answer as the Americans continued to pour on chances in the third period. Some excellent goaltending from Lennart Neisse kept the Americans contained, but they still maintained control of that game to the end.
Final: USA 6 – Germany 3
Next game up (USA): Dec 27, 6:00 ET vs. Switzerland
Next game up (GER): Dec 27, 2:00 ET vs. Slovakia
Czechia vs. Canada
And the final game of the day was a matchup between the Canadians and the Czechs, and was this one ever a doozy. The Canadians were looking to exact a bit of revenge in this one over the team that knocked them out of the tournament two years in a row, but it wasn’t an easy task for them. From the very jump, the pace in this one was high, and the trading of breakaway chances early on was a good tone setter for this game. The Canadians, for their part, were able to capitalize first on their strong start, getting on the board first on a conversion for Brady Martin on a stellar bit of setup work from Michael Hage and Gavin McKenna, but their edge in momentum would turn out to be short-lived. The Czechs were able to get themselves on the board late in the period on a goal from Tomas Poletin to draw things even again, but they found themselves behind again just 37 seconds later as Hage put one behind the Czech goaltender, and that line continued to make itself a problem for their defenders.
This type of back and forth, strike and counterstrike, action was the real defining tone of this game on the whole. The Canadians came into the second period looking to build on their lead, but the Czechs again tied things up on a delayed penalty early in the period, and then were themselves able to pull into the lead on a goal just over six minutes later from Petr Sikora. Here is where they had a chance to continue building up their own momentum, but the Canadians had other plans, and Zayne Parekh was able to get the one back just under five minutes later, and then stepped up again to reclaim the lead for the Canadians on the other side of the intermission, early in the third period. Of course, because no one in this game could hold on to momentum for too long, the Czechs again found the equalizer on a second goal of the night from Poletin, not even two minutes later.
It was looking for a time like this one was surely overtime bound — which would have been the icing on the cake of quite a long day of action — but the Canadians were able to convert on a couple of good chances, first in a quick response from Tij Iginala to the Poletin goal, and then on a nice follow up from the undrafted Ethan MacKenzie to give them their first two-goal lead of the game. It wasn’t a ton of separation, but even with the Czechs responding with another goal late in the period, it was enough. So this one ended in a wild win for the Canadians, but not before a bit more craziness — Flyers prospect and Canadian captain Porter Martone was able to put away the empty net goal for his team, and then immediately got himself sent to the box for the final minute of play after taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the celebration, cruising past the Czech bench and giving one of their players a tap. Which is, all in all, truly so Flyers of him.
Final: Canada 7 – Czechia 5
Next game up (CAN): Dec 27, 4:30 ET vs. Latvia
Next game up (CZE): Dec 27, 8:30 vs. Denmark
