One of the bigger days schedule-wise for the World Junior tournament Group B in Victoria did not disappoint. The first game featured a hard fought battle between Finland and Slovakia, while the second game of the day turned into a nail-biter between Sweden and the USA.
Finland slides past Slovakia
Team Finland came into Saturday’s game against Team Slovakia as the favourite and they did not disappoint. Finland played a tight defensive game and made the most of their opportunities. The 5-1 loss for Slovakia was their third straight and they are winless so far in the tournament.
Finnish defencemen Henri Jokiharju, formerly of the Portland Winterhawks, had a very strong game with two points and an ice-time of 20:31.
In the first period, with the extra ice of a 5-on-3, Jokiharju wired a one-timer past Slovak goalie Samuel Hlavaj to open the scoring. “Aleksi (Heponiemi) made a nice play to me so I had the easy job to put it in the net,” said Jokiharju post-game. “I just fired it right away. We were in the zone over a minute so I just wanted to shoot it.” Commenting on the workload he had for the game, he dismissed it as no challenge. “I think we were rotating pretty well. We got a lot of powerplay and penalty-kill time, so I think I can handle those minutes real well. I don’t feel like today I played that much.”
Santeri Virtanen added a second goal for Finland as he buried a beautiful pass as he cruised past the front of the net.
The second frame saw Finland extend their lead. First it was Ville Heinola scoring to make it 3-0, then Anton Lundell pulled them ahead further with the 4-0 goal.
Slovakia’s Milos Roman got his team on the board as he converted a pass to the side of the net. The Vancouver Giants forward scored as his country was on a 5-on-3 powerplay. Describing the goal, Roman said “I got a very good pass and had an empty net. It was a very good power play, we have to continue to go to net and trying to score.” When asked how it felt to score the goal for his country, Roman said “It’s the dream of everybody to represent their country. It’s something that I dreamed when I was younger and it’s a good feeling to score.”
Finland iced the game in the third as defenceman Oskari Laaksonen wired a bullet to make it 5-1. Next up for Finland is a New Year’s Eve matchup against Team USA.
For Slovakia, it comes down to a game versus Kazakhstan. If Slovakia wins, they are off to the Quarterfinals, while a loss means they head to relegation.
WHL notables:
- Milos Roman (Vancouver) – 1 goal; 15:20 time on ice ; –3
- Andrej Kukuca (Seattle) – 10:45 time on ice; -1
WHL notables (all former WHL players who now play elsewhere):
- Henri Jokiharju (Chicago-NHL) – 1 goal 1 assist; 20:31 time on ice; +2
- Aleksi Heponiemi (Karpaat-Liiga) – 1 assist; 17:01 time on ice; +1
- Sami Moilanen (Tappara-Liiga) – 12:08 time on ice; even
Sweden holds off amazing USA surge for overtime victory
The second game of the day was a heavyweight battle for first place in Group B between Sweden and Team USA. And that battle went down to the wire thanks to a never-quit effort by Team USA.
The Americans would score four straight goals in the last 11 minutes, including a natural hat-trick by Ryan Poehling. “I think we had to show a little bit of pride and we did that,” said Poehling post-game. “We ended up losing, but I think tonight is going to help us in the long run. It’s a good time for it to happen since it was just the preliminary round.”
Sweden held steadfast in overtime to secure their record 47th straight win in round-robin play at the tournament.
Of note, Team USA would again be without the services of Jack Hughes as he missed his second straight game.
The capacity crowd in Victoria was pro-Sweden as a large cheer went up as the Tre Kronor came out onto the ice. A tight first period saw action at both ends of the ice as both teams sized each other up.
The scoring came early as Fili Westerlund opened the scoring at 4:47.
With less than five minutes remaining in the period, Sweden went on a 5-on-3 for close to a full two minutes. USA was able to kill both penalties as Sweden could not get set with the man-advantage.
Sweden came out with multiple chances to start the second period and Team USA goaltender Kyle Keyser had to be sharp. The Swedish momentum carried on as Rickard Hugg scored off a nice feed from Samuel Fagemo to make it 2-0.
The Swedes followed it up shortly after as Emil Bemstrom was sprung in all alone on Keyser. Bemstrom’s third goal of the tournament wasn’t pretty, but slid along the ice and under the falling American goaltender. Sweden controlled the second period, out-shooting Team USA 12 to seven while adding the two goals.
Sweden kept it coming in the third period as captain Erik Brannstrom lifted a backhand over Keyser to make it 4-0. The goal was the fourth of the tournament for Brannstrom, who is an early favourite for top defender.
Team USA finally broke the shout-out bid by Sweden goaltender Samuel Ersson in the middle of the third period. Mikey Anderson scored on the powerplay to make the game 4-1.
The goal by the American team captain seemed to spark his team, as they gained momentum. That translated into a second powerplay goal, as Ryan Poehling buried the puck past Ersson.
Team USA continued the climb back, as they added a third goal with their goalie out and less than a minute to go. Poehling was the recipient of a beautiful pass at the side of the net for his second of the game.
Then the unlikely happened. Team USA completed the comeback with just 23.7 seconds left. Poehling capped the amazing natural hat-trick to tie the game at 4-4 and lift the roof off the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
In the extra frame the action was unbelievable. The open ice of three-on-three lead to spectacular chances on both ends. Sweden was able to lock down the win by the overtime heroics of Adam Boqvist who finished a give-and-go on a two on one.
A remarkable finish to the game that very much lived up to the hype.
