Insight, U20 World Junior Championships

Team WHL dominates opener in CIBC Canada Russia Series 7-0

Written by Brandon Rivers on

The best Canadian players that the WHL has, put on a show Monday night in Moose Jaw. Led by two goals and an assist by Kelowna’s Kole Lind, three assists from Brandon’s Kale Clague and two point nights from Portland’s Cody Glass, Tri-City’s Michael Rasmussen, Kelowna’s Dillon Dube and Moose Jaw’s Brett Howden, this was all Team WHL. They took the first of two games over a select team from Russia 7-0.

The WHL also go some stellar goaltending from the returning starter for Hockey Canada’s U-20 World Junior team. Everett’s Carter Hart made three odd-man rush stops in the first period and everything else the Russians threw at him, stopping all 20 shots he faced for the shutout.

Hart, Dube and Clague, who all played on the Silver Medal-winning Canadian team a year ago, cemented their spots on this year’s roster with great games. Lind made the best argument of those trying to represent the maple leaf at the U-20 level for the first time.

Right after their first power play ended in the first period, Lind sniped a shot over the left shoulder of Russia’s Vladislav Sukachev. This made it 1-0 Team WHL. Hart’s big stops would help keep his team in the lead after one period.

Matthew Phillips then built off his strong showing this last summer at the World Junior Evaluation Camp, with a goal of his own as he redirected a Kale Clague shot in for Team WHL’s second goal, 5:13 into the second.

The team’s third goal came off a combined effort by the line of Lind, Michael Rasmussen and Cody Glass. The Portland Winterhawk center fed Lind to enter the zone and he got the puck over to the rangy Rasmussen for an attempt to the right of Sukhacehv. The Russian goalie made the stop, but the puck came over to Lind for the tap in and his second of the night.

Brett Howden made it 4-0 as he deflected a shot from the point by Prince George’s Dennis Cholowski. Then, with just 36 seconds left, Dillon Dube drove the net and flipped a backhand pass to Regina’s Sam Steel. The reigning WHL MVP could not put it home, but the leading scorer in the WHL, Swift Current’s Tyler Steenbergen could on the rebound.

Sukhachev was pulled from the net after 40 minutes and allowing five goals on 26 shots. His replacement, Alexey Melnichuk was greeted with a nice goal by Glass, off a nice back door pass from Lind. That made the score 6-0 early in the third.

Dube then rounded out the scoring as he collected a patient feed from Clague just inside the blue line, then deked around Melnichuk and put the puck away.

Notes:

Jake Bean went down after blocking a shot from Andrey Altybarmakyan in the second. He did return to the game. Howden, who awkwardly fell along the boards in the third period, did not return.

The two team get back at it tomorrow night in Swift Current.

Lethbridge’s Stuart Skinner should get his chance to make an argument for the backup role behind Hart in Swift Current.

Lind and Steenbergen both had five shots for the WHL, while Howden had four. Glass went 7/13 at the draw, while Sam Steel was 13/18 and Anderson-Dolan was 6/8.