Ice Hockey IIHF World Championships 2017

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Under 20 Top Division World Championships in Canada

 

Day 6 Schedule (31st December 2016)

(GMT -5)

 

Group A (in Montreal)

13:00  Sweden vs Czech Republic

- Sweden is already the Group winner, Czech Republic will fight for 2nd place, in case of Regulation Time win the will be 2nd for sure,  in case of OT/GWS win they will need a help from Finland in the last this group match,

17:30  Finland vs Switzerland

- Last match of the preliminary round Group A, Finland is already send downto the relegation round, so this match hasn´t any special matter for them, Switzerland still can dream about 2nd place in group in case of win and help of Sweden.

 

Group B (in Toronto)

15:30  USA vs Canada

- The traditional sweet cake of the New Years Eve day in hockey world, the battle of North America, once again it will be a direct match for 1st and 2nd place of the group between both undefeated teams so far.

20:00  Russia vs Slovakia

- The Last match of the preliminary round. Direct game for 3rd and 4th place of the group...or in short, the game for avoid still unbeaten Sweden in the Quarterfinals.

 

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Drastic way to solve problems unprecedented act in the mid tournament in world hockey history

 

 

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2013 all over again...

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Sweden - Czech Republic  5-2

 

 

 

 

 

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Sweden - Czech Republic  5-2

 

Fourth straight Swedish win

Dahlen's hat trick leads Sweden over Czechs

 

Jonathan Dahlen starred with a hat trick as Sweden beat the Czech Republic 5-2 to complete a perfect round-robin. Goalie Filip Gustavsson debuted with a win.

 

In Monday’s quarter-finals, Sweden will face the loser of the Russia-Slovakia game in Montreal.

Topping Group A with 12 points, Sweden is questing for its first gold medal since 2012 and first medal of any shade since 2014's silver. The Czechs last won gold in 2001 and haven't won anything since 2005's bronze. 

 

This was a battle of back-up goalies. Gustavsson, who was named Best Goalie at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship en route to silver, made 36 saves to triumph in his first World Junior game. The Czech Republic’s Daniel Vladar had 33 saves.

 

Other scorers for Sweden were Rasmus Asplund, who chipped in a goal and an assist, and Jens Looke, who had a single. Team points leader Alexander Nylander earned two helpers.

David Kase replied with a goal and an assist for the Czech Republic, and captain Filip Hronek also scored.

The Czechs had an up-and-down round-robin. After upsetting defending champion Finland 2-1 in the opener, they lost two games in extra time to underdogs, 4-3 to Switzerland and 3-2 to Denmark.

 

The Swedes clearly had no intention of letting the Czechs finish second in the group. On a 2-on-1 rush, Asplund went to the net and banged in a rebound to open the scoring at 0:37. The Swedish assistant captain continued to make noise, laying out Kase with a big neutral-zone hit that had the Bell Centre crowd gasping.

 

Kase came close to equalizing when he shoved a puck through Gustavsson’s legs, but it trickled harmlessly past the post.

 

On Sweden’s first power play of the game, Asplund maintained his hot hand, sending a lovely pass from the right faceoff circle to Dahlen, who directed the puck past Vladar at 8:56.

 

The 3-0 goal showed that this just wasn’t the Czechs’ day. Czech forward Lukas Jasek went to the net to clear away the loose puck on a Swedish rush and it deflected into his own net off his right skate at 16:46. Looke, a three-time World Junior participant, got credit for his first goal of the tournament.

Early in the second period, Swedish forward Tim Soderlund was shaken up when he slid hard into the boards on a shorthanded rush.

 

However, the 18-year-old Skelleftea forward would return to action. On this Czech man advantage, Gustavsson made a pair of dazzling close-range saves to preserve his team's commanding lead.

With 2:51 left in the middle frame, Dahlen fought off defenceman Jakub Zboril's checking to push a backhand deke past Vladar for a 4-0 lead. Filip Ahl nearly added Sweden's fifth goal just before the buzzer when he rang one off the iron.

In the third period, Dahlen completed his hat trick at 3:34 on the power play, as he skated out of the corner along the goal line and squeezed another backhander in.

The Czechs spoiled Gustavsson's shutout bid at 13:09 with Kase's jammed-in goal. Hronek cut the gap to 5-2 on the power play at 17:28, but it was too late for a miraculous comeback.

Gabriel Carlsson, who played a team-leading 20:53 on defence in Sweden's 3-1 win over Finland, sat this game out.

 

Sweden has now won 40 consecutive World Junior group games. The Juniorkronorna's last round-robin loss was on 31 December 2006 when Jack Johnson scored at 3:16 of overtime to give the Americans a 3-2 win in Leksand, Sweden.

 

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2017

 

 

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USA - Canada  3-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

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USA - Canada  3-1

 

USA ends NYE drought

Nerves, special teams Canada’s undoing

 

 

The United States put on a shot- and pass-blocking clinic in defeating Canada, 3-1, this afternoon at the Air Canada Centre to claim first place in Group B.

 

The result marked the first New Year’s Eve victory for the U.S. over Canada in 18 years, a streak of seven games (six losses, one tie).

 

The U.S. was full measure for the win, playing with greater confidence and surety, capitalizing on early power plays, weathering the storm when Canada turned on the heat, and getting better goaltending at crucial moments from Joseph Woll than that provided Canada by Connor Ingram.

 

The Americans silenced the crowd early with two quick power-play goals. The first came at 4:31 on a play around the goal. Jordan Greenway feathered a nice pass from the corner to Colin White, and his quick shot beat Connor Ingram to the far side.

 

Just a minute and a half later, after a lazy kneeing penalty by Philippe Myers, Greenway walked out form the corner and tucked the puck between Ingram’s pads, a soft goal, to be sure but a great burst of speed from the American forward.

 

Later in the period Canada had a great chance t get on the board thanks to a two-man advantage for 47 seconds, but it got nary a decent shot off during the power play.

 

Canada had another great chance early in the second when Luke Kunin took a five-minute major (and game misconduct) for interference, followed by another minor soon after, giving the home side a two-man advantage for 1:48. This time they connected. Thomas Chabot got a rebound to the back side of the net and drilled it in before Joseph Woll could get over.

 

This started several minutes of intense pressure, but Canada couldn’t get the equalizer and the visitors silenced the crowd with a goal off a juicy rebound from Ingram. This time it was Jeremy Bracco who found the back of the net to make it a 3-1 game.

 

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VICTORY!!! THANK YOU JUSSI AHOKAS FOR WAKING UP THE TEAM! 

Switzerland got outplayed & Outshot

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UNDER 20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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Finland - Switzerland  2-0

 

 

 

 

 

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Finland - Switzerland  2-0

 

Finns blank Switzerland

Swiss face U.S. in QF, Finland plays relegation

 

With a 2-0 loss to Finland, the Swiss came fourth in Group A and will face the U.S. in the quarter-finals. The Finns take on Latvia in the relegation round.

 

This New Year’s Eve tilt only affected Switzerland’s quarter-final seeding. Relatively speaking, their tournament is already a success. After finishing ninth the last two years, they have a shot at medalling for the first and only time since 1998’s bronze.

 

The Swiss, who now head to Toronto, are playoff underdogs. They have an all-time record of zero wins, two ties and 20 losses versus the Americans.

 

The Finns have fared abysmally at the Bell Centre. They came in as defending champions, but were eliminated from quarter-finals contention when Switzerland beat Denmark 5-4 in a shootout. Compounding the shock, the Finnish federation then relieved head coach Jukka Rautakorpi and his assistants of their duties.

 

New Finnish coach Jussi Ahokas made his World Junior debut against Switzerland, assisted by Tommi Niemela and goalie coach Aki Naykki. Ahokas, who had done commentary for Finnish TV network YLE at this tournament, was originally slated to take over the World Junior team at the 2018 tournament in Buffalo, New York. He led Finland to U18 gold in April.

Finland's best-of-three relegation series versus Latvia kicks off on Monday. It's the first time in history that a defending World Junior champion has had to play relegation games. The Latvians, who have a 6-29 goal differential, are at their sixth elite World Juniors of all time. Twice they have avoided relegation, finishing eighth in 2009 and ninth in 2012.

 

Versus Switzerland, Aapeli Rasanen and Eeli Tolvanen notched a goal and an assist apiece. Final shots on goal favored Finland 51-17. Finnish goalie Veini Vehvilainen got his second career World Junior shutout.

Swiss captain Calvin Thurkauf returned to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension for slewfooting Sweden's Rasmus Dahlin. Yannick Zehnder, who scored twice against Denmark, sat out due to illness.

 

Finland outshot Switzerland 17-8 but couldn't click on two power plays in a scoreless first period. Arttu Ruotsalainen hit the crossbar early in the second period.

 

At 4:35 of the second, Finland’s top line finally broke through. Rasanen went to the net and fluttered a Tolvanen rebound over Swiss goalie Joren van Pottelberghe to make it 1-0. It was the first time Finland had scored since Rasanen's first-period goal in the 3-1 loss to Sweden.

 

At 13:53, Tolvanen gave Finland a 2-0 lead with his power-play one-timer. With under three minutes left in the second, Tolvanen was barely stopped by the overworked van Pottelberghe on a breakaway.

The Finns finished group play with just six goals. Their lowest-scoring World Juniors ever was also here in Montreal. In 2015, under coach Hannu Jortikka, they totalled eight goals in five games, losing 6-3 to Sweden in the semi-finals.