Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

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Finland - Canada  1-3

 

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Canada Finnishes off strong

Fitzpatrick excels as Canadians top Group B

Canada's Pascal Laberge #9 celebrates at the bench after giving his team a 1-0 over Finland during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

 

 

 

Backstopped by Evan Fitzpatrick’s stellar netminding, Canada took a 2-0 first-period lead and beat Finland 3-1 on Tuesday to clinch top spot in Group B.

 

Pascal Laberge, David Quenneville, and Tyson Jost scored for Canada.

Of Fitzpatrick's play, Jost said: "Unbelievable. So many huge saves for us. He kept us in that game a few times. He’s played outstanding for us throughout the tournament and I’m sure he’ll keep it rolling."

Eetu Tuulola scored for Finland, which outshot Canada 27-24.

Unless Switzerland pulls a huge upset by defeating the defending champion U.S. in its last round-robin game, the Canadians will face the Swiss in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Likewise, assuming Switzerland loses to the U.S., the Finns will take on Russia in the quarter-finals.

"Right now, we’re just focused on recovering from this game and getting ready for the quarters," said Fitzpatrick. "We don’t really care who it’s against. We’re just going to go out there and play our game."

This defensive duel was a showdown between the 2015 silver medalists in Finland and bronze medalists in Canada. However, so far this year, the Canadians look like the better team.

"Canada came pretty hard in the first 10 minutes and they scored two goals in the first period," said Finland's Eeli Tolvanen. "That was hard. But we played the last two periods pretty well. It was almost our game. We just didn’t capitalize on all those scoring chances."

Fitzpatrick was full value for the victory, even though he didn't have as much work as in his 38-save performance in the 3-1 win over the Czechs.

"To be honest, at the beginning of the game, I wasn’t feeling 100 percent," said Fitzpatrick, who plays for the QMJHL's Sherbrooke Phoenix. But I tried to battle through it. After that first glove save there, I really started feeling comfortable. Throughout the game, the puck just kept getting bigger and bigger, and it was easier to track."

It was the fourth straight Finnish loss to Canada at the IIHF World U18 Championship. The last Finnish win was 4-2 on April 14, 2012.

Finnish coach Jussi Ahokas juggled his lines to add Jesse Puljujarvi, the MVP of Finland’s 2016 World Junior gold medal run. Puljujarvi made his tournament debut on a new trio with Janne Kuokkanen and Otto Somppi.

Canada countered by trying to get its top defensive pairing of Dante Fabbro and Jakob Chychrun out against the Karpat Oulu star whenever possible.

"Obviously he’s such a skilled and elite player," said Jost of Puljujarvi. "We were keying on him a little bit and I thought we did a really good job of shutting him down. We kept him off the scoresheet, so that’s nice to see."

The Canadians dominated with early pressure, and got on the board first on the power play at 7:16. Laberge skated in unobstructed and whizzed one past Finnish starter Leevi Laakso on the glove side.

After a solid penalty kill that saw Finland pressing, the Canadians kept coming. At 12:30, Quenneville’s drive from the right point went five-hole with heavy traffic in front to make it 2-0.

In the final minute of the first, Tolvanen came within a hair’s-breadth of getting Finland on the board when he took a drop pass on the rush and zipped one off the inside of Fitzpatrick’s left post.

The Finns had the upper hand in the second period. But they had nothing to show for it, even with two power plays, thanks mostly to Fitzpatrick's heroics.

"Our team’s playing real well," said Fitzpatrick. "We keep getting better every day. Playing behind them, it makes my job a little bit easier, for sure."

Near the seven-minute mark, Markus Nurmi hit the left post again with a loud clang. Just seconds later, Fitzpatrick made a stellar glove save on Somppi’s one-timer from the right faceoff circle.

Then, off a faceoff in the Canadian zone, Tolvanen took it to the net and again Fitzpatrick came through with his mitt. The Canadian goalie also foiled Tuulola on a clear-cut breakaway with three minutes remaining in the frame.

"We had chances to score goals but we just missed them," said Puljujarvi.

Early in the third period, Laakso gave his team a chance to stay alive by staring down Boris Katchuok on his point-blake deke.

Fitzpatrick shone again during Finland's last power play of the game, coming across to foil Tolvanen again on Puljujarvi's sweet cross-ice set-up. But the blue-and-white team kept coming after the man advantage.

Tuulola provided the screen in front and tipped defenceman Robin Salo's slapper over the goalie's left shoulder to make it 2-1 with 5:16 left.

Finland called its time out with 54 seconds remaining and pulled Laakso for the extra attacker. Jost added an empty-netter after outhustling Finland's Miro Heiskanen to a loose puck.

 

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Slovakia - Czech Republic  4-3

 

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Bucek-ing the trend!

Slovaks rally to edge Czechs for third in group

Slovakia's Erik Smolka #4, Adam Liska #20 and Slovakia's Roman Durny #30 celebrate a first period goal against Czech Republic during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

 

 

The Slovaks hadn’t beaten the Czechs at this tournament since 2003, but rallied from a 3-1 deficit to edge their neighbors 4-3 for third place in Group B.

 

Tuesday’s result sets up a quarter-final clash between the Slovaks and Sweden on Thursday. The fourth-place Czech Republic will play the defending champion Americans, who finished first in Group A.

Samuel Bucek scored the winner with 3:27 remaining. It was his team-leading fourth goal of the tournament.

This was a wild affair that saw Slovak captain Samuel Smolensky awarded two penalty shots. He converted on the second one early in the third period.

The Czechs had a super start when Marek Zachar opened the scoring just 1:18 in. But two minutes later, Adam Liska tied it up for Slovakia.

Jiri Karifiat put the Czechs back on top at 12:22. They appeared to have the game well in hand when 16-year-old phenom Filip Zadina made it 3-1 with his team-best fourth goal 43 seconds into the middle frame.

But the Slovaks weren’t done. Smolensky had indicated before this game that he thought his team had a 50/50 chance against their rivals, and his words were borne out.

First, Peter Bjaloncik cut the lead to 3-2 when he scored a shorthanded goal for Slovakia at 15:01 of the second period.

Then, Smolensky got a penalty shot 41 seconds before the buzzer when he was hooked by Czech defenceman David Kvasnicka. But he couldn’t capitalize on his attempt.

The Slovak captain atoned for that omission when he got his second penalty shot at 2:09 of the third period. This time, after getting slashed by Lukas Doudera, he made no mistake and it was 3-3. That set the stage for Bucek’s winner. The celebration was on for coach Peter Mikula’s crew.

Both teams struggled on the power play, failing to convert despite Slovakia’s eight minor penalties and the Czech Republic’s five.

Slovakia’s all-time World U18 record against the Czechs improved to four wins, one tie, and five losses. The previous Slovak win over the Czechs was 2-1 in the quarter-finals on April 19, 2003. The Slovaks had their best run ever that year, claiming silver with a 3-0 final loss to Canada

 

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Lee leads "Magnitka" to glory

 

GAGARIN CUP FINALS

 

CSKA Moscow 1
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3
Metallurg wins the Gagarin Cup, clinching the final series 4-3

 

Two points from Chris Lee, two goals from Evgeny Timkin and 36 saves from Vasily Koshechkin saw Metallurg Magnitogorsk to a victory that sealed its second Gagarin Cup in three years.

 

 

The visitor weathered a storm of pressure from CSKA but delivered a fine display of counter-attacking hockey – including a goal with its first shot of the night on 12:55 – to shatter the Army Men’s dreams of winning the playoffs for the first time since 1989 and completing a sweep of all three trophies up for grabs this season.

Instead, Lee’s 39th-minute goal proved decisive. CSKA had tied the game just three minutes earlier, but home joy was shortlived. Lee, whose first-period assist silenced the crowd, repeated the trick when he unleashed a one-timer between the hatchings off a Jan Kovar pass from behind the net.

 

 

There was still 20 minutes of hockey to play, 20 minutes for CSKA to save its Gagarin Cup dream. But the home team found no way past Koshechkin, a veteran goalie playing out of his skin to steer his team to the big prize. He produced the saves demanded of him by Stephane da Costa, Maxim Mamin, Geoff Platt and Vladimir Zharkov before an empty-net goal from Timkin sealed the victory in the last minute.

That set another clutch of Gagarin Cup records. Metallurg head coach Ilya Vorobyov, at the age of 41, becomes the youngest man to coach a team to the big prize. He is also the first person to take over behind the bench part way through a season and go on to win it all, reawakening the championship skills of the roster he inherited from Mike Keenan.

 

 

Many of that roster pick up their second winners’ medals: captain Sergei Mozyakin among them as he finished as the top post-season scorer with 25 (11+14) points. Forward Danis Zaripov, unusually out of the points in this game, gets his fourth Gagarin Cup winner’s medal. He won with Metallurg in 2014, and also helped Ak Bars to victory in the first two editions back in 2009 and 2010 (albeit only featuring once in post season in that second victorious campaign).

But Metallurg’s triumph left CSKA distraught after a playoff campaign in which it seemed peerless until the final hurdle. Having lost just one game in three series to reach the final, Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team struggled with Metallurg’s ability to disrupt its play and slow the game down – and today’s first period illustrated the point more clinically than usual.

 

 

CSKA had much the better of the opening stanza – but apart from one clear shooting opportunity for Alexander Radulov after an early defensive error the home team struggled to really get inside the opposition.

And then, with Magnitka forced to play on the counter, Chris Lee demonstrated how to conjure a goal out of nothing. The defenseman collected the puck in his own end and produced a sublime pass, slicing through CSKA’s skaters and opening up half the ice for Evgeny Timkin to go one-on-one with Ilya Sorokin and beat the home goalie with the first shot he faced on the night.

CSKA continued to press – the shot count would read 13-2 at the first intermission – but the clearest opening fell to the lively Mikhail Yunkov off a Simon Hjalmarsson pass and the former Metallurg man saw his shot blocked by Koshechkin.

In the middle session the action moved closer to Koshechkin’s net as CSKA worked harder to get the puck into the danger zone. Scrambles on the slot were commonplace: Stephane da Costa went close, Yunkov saw another shooting chance go begging, Radulov worked from behind the net to prompt an almighty scrimmage in front of the target.

As the pressure mounted, the big moment came: CSKA tied the game with a goal reminiscent of the breakaway that gave Metallurg the lead. Maxim Mamin was the home team’s hero, firing home the rebound after Bogdan Kiselevich’s pass set up Geoff Platt for a shot that Koshechkin could only pad away into the danger zone.

 

 

It felt like a decisive shift to everyone in the stadium – except for the men from Magnitogorks. Parity proved short-lived: Chris Lee gave Metallurg the lead once again even before the home fans had finished celebrating their equalizer. The veteran D-man thumped home a one-timer from between the hatching off a pass from Jan Kovar behind the net.

Timkin’s late marker put a ribbon on the final scoreline, and the celebrations stretching from Moscow right the way back to the southern Urals, could get underway in earnest. 

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sorry for not being always on time (in this last few months unfortunate circumstances don't leave me a lot of time to dedicate to the forum and other entertaining activity), but in the next few days I'm going to post a full recap of what happened in the playoffs of all the major European Leagues...

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United States - Switzerland  4-0

 

 

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Americans blank Swiss

U.S. vs. Czechs, Canada vs. Swiss in QF

USA's Kaller Yamamoto #23 celebrates a first period goal against Switzerland with Ryan Lindgren #18 during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

The United States completed its round-robin slate with a solid 4-0 win over Switzerland on Tuesday. The U.S. will face the Czechs in the quarter-finals.

 

Casey Mittelstadt scored twice, Kailer Yamamoto had a goal and an assist, and Graham McPhee added a single for the Americans. Logan Brown and Luke Martin picked up two assists apiece.

Looking ahead to battling the Czechs, U.S. head coach Danton Cole said: "Every game they play, they give the other team a hard game. We’re anticipating that it’s going to be a tough 60 minutes and that they’re going to be prepared. They’ve got skill, and they’ve added some guys since the last time we played them."

Switzerland, which finished fourth in Group A, will take on Canada in the quarter-finals.

"Canada is a very good team, like the USA," said Swiss forward Nico Hischier. "We must do the little things better and play 60 minutes of our best hockey."

U.S. netminder Joseph Woll got the shutout as his team outshot Switzerland 37-15. Swiss goalie Philip Wuthrich played well in his first action of this IIHF U18 World Championship, while number one man Matteo Ritz didn’t even dress.

Overall, with due respect to Switzerland's work ethic and attention to detail, the defending champions appeared to do just enough to pull off the win while avoiding injuries and excessive fatigue.

"I don’t think it was our best game, for sure," said U.S. captain Ryan Lindgren. "Switzerland came out hard and banged bodies. They’re a good team. But it was definitely the result we wanted. It was a good shutout for us."

The U.S. was a tad sloppy defensively to open the game. Hischier got a breakaway off the opening faceoff and Woll had to make a good stop. Kieffer Bellows was sent off for hooking, and the Americans worked hard to kill off the minor.

Entering the Swiss zone, Brown drew two defenders to him and slipped it across to Mittelstadt, who tucked a backhand between Wuthrich’s legs at 12:47.

Slick power play puck movement gave the U.S. a 2-0 lead at 16:44. Lindgren skimmed a perfect pass from the left faceoff circle to Yamamoto, who was standing on the edge of the crease and simply redirected it in for his tournament-leading fifth goal and ninth point.

"Everyone’s moving the puck and we’re just finding seams," said Yamamoto. "It’s definitely good to be on a line that moves the puck, and you just shoot when you need to shoot."

Switzerland’s failure to clear the puck away from its net helped the U.S. make it 3-0 early in the second period. At 5:24, McPhee knocked it in during a scramble.

In the third period, Wuthrich made a lovely glove save on Joey Anderson's high backhand with under five minutes left to prevent a fourth American goal.

But Mittelstadt got that fourth goal on a nice backhand deke with 3:27 remaining.

This wasn't like the last time these two teams met in IIHF U18 play. Switzerland surprised the U.S. 4-2 on April 17, 2014 for its only win in (now) eight tries.

The Americans have outscored their opposition by a whopping 30-4 margin through four games. A three-peat is three wins away for the host nation.

"Now we move on to the real stuff," Cole said.

 

 

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Quarter-final picture complete

U.S. vs. Czechs late game at The Ralph

The Ralph Engelstad Arena hosts three quarter-finals at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

With the group standings finalized, the quarter-finals for the 2016 IIHF U18 World Championship have been announced.

 

The quarter-finals on 21 April will begin with Finland playing Russia at 12:00 local time at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. At the same venue, Canada and Switzerland will play the second game at 15:30, and the host United States will face the Czech Republic in the third game at 19:30.

The fourth quarter-final will be played at the ICON Sports Center, with Sweden facing Slovakia at 18:00.

After an off-day on 20 April, game action will begin on 21 April with the start of the best-of-three relegation round between Latvia and Denmark at 11:00 at the ICON Sports Center. The rest of the relegation round will take place at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The winner will remain in the top division for the 2017 IIHF World U18 Championship in Poprad and Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, while the loser will be relegated to the 2017 IIHF World U18 Championship Division I Group A. The team promoted for the 2017 tournament in Slovakia is Belarus.

Quarter-Finals
 
Thursday, 21 April
At Ralph Engelstad Arena

• 12:00 – Finland (home) vs. Russia (visitor)
• 15:30 – Canada (home) vs. Switzerland (visitor)
• 19:30 – USA (home) vs. Czech Republic (visitor)

At ICON Sports Center

• 18:00 – Sweden (home) vs. Slovakia (visitor)

Relegation Round (best-of-three)

Thursday, 21 April

• 11:00 – Latvia (home) vs. Denmark (visitor) – ICON Sports Center – Judd Rink

Friday, 22 April

• 19:00 – Denmark (home) vs. Latvia (visitor) – Ralph Engelstad Arena

Sunday, 24 April

• 11:00 – Latvia (home) vs. Denmark (visitor) – Ralph Engelstad Arena (if necessary)

 

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Latvia - Denmark  5-1