Ice Hockey 2015 - 2016 Discussion Thread

[hckošice 14,899]

Switzerland - Sweden  1-8

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Swedes swat down Swiss

Nylander leads Sweden with six points in romp

Sweden's Timothy Liljegren #19 and teammates celebrate after a second period goal against Switzerland's Matteo Ritz #30 during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

Alexander Nylander ran wild with two goals and four assists and Tim Wahlgren had a record-setting natural hat trick as Sweden trounced the Swiss 8-1 on Monday.

 

The Swedes will have a showdown with Russia for second place in Group A on Tuesday.

"It’s a very important game for us," Nylander said. "We have to come in like we came into this game and work hard every shift. Everybody has to play their best, and hopefully we’ll win that game."

Nylander's six points versus the Swiss tied him with several players for the second-highest single-game total in IIHF World U18 Championship history. Finland's Toni Rajala set the record with seven points versus Norway in 2009.

"It’s pretty big," said Nylander. "It was a lot of fun to play today with the new linemates."

Marcus Davidsson added two goals and an assist for Sweden. Jesper Bokvist potted a single, and Elias Pettersson had three helpers.

Nando Eggenberger replied for Switzerland, which wraps up its round-robin against the defending champion Americans on Tuesday.

"In the second and third period we took too many penalties," said Swiss captain Livio Stadler. "We were not committed to our game plan. It’s tough. We have to work harder each day and focus on the game tomorrow."

Swedish goalie Filip Gustavsson enjoyed a much lighter outing than Swiss starter Matteo Ritz, who was pulled after surrendering seven goals.

"Ritz is absolutely a good goalie, but we didn’t help him," said Stadler. "We didn’t clear out the rebounds in front of our net."

Shots on goal favoured Sweden 36-13. It was a smart, methodical performance that resembled the style of the senior Tre Kronor team. The Swedish power play was on fire, capitalizing five times.

Of facing Russia next, Swedish coach Torgny Bendelin said: "I think they have a good team. They play well together. You can see their boys have been together for a long time. Of course, it’s going to be a tough game."

Eggenberger made it 1-0 Switzerland on a nice solo dash at 8:55. He outraced Swedish defenceman Erik Brannstrom for a loose puck and cut in off the right side to beat Gustavsson in tight on the forehand.

The Swedes picked up their game after that -- significantly.

Nylander tied it up at 15:04, as he had all day to roof the puck over a down-and-out Ritz after receiving a cross-ice pass from Lias Andersson. The younger brother of Toronto Maple Leafs prospect William Nylander was named the OHL’s rookie of the year today after recording 75 points in 57 games for the Mississauga Steelheads.

"It’s very nice to get that honor," said Nylander. "I couldn’t do it without my coaching staff and my teammates."

Sweden went up 2-1 at 2:33 of the second period. Timothy Liljegren stepped in off the blue line, faked a slap shot, and then sent a slap pass to Davidsson, who tipped it through Ritz’s legs from the high slot.

Thomas Lust had a great chance to knot the score on a shorthanded breakaway with about five minutes left in the middle frame, but he lost the puck as he tried to deke the goalie. That was the last gasp for the Swiss.

The Swedes started to pull away with a power play goal at 16:09. Davidsson whacked a rebound past Ritz's right leg to make it 3-1.

Nylander put the game out of reach at 18:56 when he dipsy-doodled past Switzerland's Kai Suter and sent a great wrister over Ritz's blocker.

In the third period, Wahlgren scored his natural hat trick entirely on the power play in just 2:57. That shattered the old record for the fastest U18 hat trick, set by Kazakhstan's Konstantin Pushkarev in 2003 versus Belarus in 7:14.

At 6:28, Wahlgren came down right wing and beat Ritz cleanly on the blocker side. He followed that up with a nice breakaway goal at 8:17 and then scored from the slot at 9:25.

At 10:04, Bokvist stickhandled to the net unbobstructed and scored on the backhand to round out the scoring at 8-1.

"We’d been a little bit so-so before," Bendelin reflected. "I said before it was important for the players to score a couple of goals and just let it go instead of playing under pressure."

With eight points in total so far, Nylander is now in contention for the tournament scoring title.

This was the 11th U18 meeting of all time between these two nations. Sweden also won every time before, except for a 3-2 defeat in 2002.

 

[Finnator123 292]

4 hours ago, hckosice said:

 

EST is actually in group B

Whoops, wrong group 

[hckošice 14,899]

Czech Republic - Denmark  9-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Czechs dominate Danes

Najman the man with five points

Team Czech Republic enjoys their national anthem after a 9-2 victory over Denmark during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

With a 9-2 victory on Monday night, the Czech Republic sent Denmark to the relegation round of the 2016 IIHF World U18 Championship to face Latvia.

 

Apparently very little has changed since these two nations last clashed at the U18. The Czechs also beat Denmark 9-2 in 2014. (The first meeting was in 2012, an 8-4 Czech victory.)

Ondrej Najman paced the Czech attack with two goals and three assists. Matyas Kanter added two goals, and Pavel Kousal had three assists. All in all, 13 Czech skaters had at least one point.

Even with nine goals, lack of power play production could be a concern for the Czechs. The Danes took six minors, but every Czech goal came at even strength.

Kanter was the only scorer in the first period, played on relatively even terms. Denmark’s Daniel Nielsen tied it up one minute into the second.

However, the Czechs struck right back with goals 40 seconds apart by Daniel Kurovsky and Najman. They ran away with it in the third period, rendering Joachim Blichfeldt’s 5-on-3 goal with under six minutes to play meaningless.

Newly promoted Denmark has lost four straight games and needs to find its form pronto.

The Czechs will jockey with neighbouring Slovakia for quarter-final seeding in their round-robin finale on Tuesday night. Denmark’s first relegation game against Latvia is on Thursday.

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Canada - Slovakia  3-1

 

 

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Canada surpasses Slovaks

Two points for Jost, Canadians still perfect

Canada's David Quenneville #18 scores a second period goal against Slovakia's Roman Durny #30 during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

Patient and opportunistic, Canada topped Slovakia 3-1 at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. Canada will battle Finland on Tuesday to determine first place in Group B.

 

David Quenneville, Brett Howden, and Boris Katchuok scored for Canada. Captain Tyson Jost had a pair of assists.

"We really stuck to our game plan of getting pucks deep and using our speed and size," said Jost. "The Czechs and this team here, they both sit back and try to clog up the neutral zone. That’s something we talked about before the game, trying to bypass that and get pucks deep."

Samuel Bucek replied for Slovakia, which will finish off its round-robin against the rival Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Of facing the Czechs, Slovak captain Samuel Smolensky said: "It’s 50/50. It’s a rivalry between Slovakia and Czech. We want to start the quarter-finals with third place, so we want to beat them and we will do everything to win tomorrow."

Canada has won three straight games in regulation, whereas Finland, now second in the group, needed a shootout to beat the Czechs 4-3 in its opener.

"We’ve got to play hard and smart, and that’s something we’ve got to key on in the next game against the Finns," said Jost.

In this game, the teams got off to a slow start, turning over the puck frequently. With about seven minutes left in the first period, forward Noah Gregor, freshly added to the Canadian lineup, was foiled at close range as Slovak starter Roman Durny made a left pad save. There was some physical action, too, as a pair of #25’s, Jordan Kyrou and Peter Bjaloncik, collided in the neutral zone.

Canada finally broke through at 3:50 of the second period when Quenneville crashed the net in the midst of a scramble and backhanded the puck up over Durny.

At 8:16, Canada went up 2-0 as Howden scored his third goal in just two outings, converting a nice centering feed from Gregor. The two are teammates with the WHL's Moose Jaw Warriors.

"I thought I played pretty well," Gregor said. "It’s a little different playing internationally, but there were some familiar faces, with Howden on my line. It was nice to get an assist."

The game got chippy and scrambly at times. Canada's Jakob Chychrun and Slovakia's Adam Ruzicka were sent off after a mid-game wrestling match in the neutral zone.

"We’ve done some research on international tournaments, and the team who’s the most disciplined is usually the one who comes out on top," Jost said. "That’s one of the things that going into this tournament we wanted to bear down on, and it’s something we do need to be a little bit better on."

It was 3-0 Canada with 41 seconds left in the middle frame, thanks to a lovely three-way passing play on the rush. From right wing, Jost sent it across to William Bitten, who centered it to Katchuok, and he made no mistake.

Durny did his best to keep his team in it, stopping Howden on a clean break in the opening minute of the third period.

Bucek made it 3-1 with an unassisted shorthanded marker against Canada's Stuart Skinner at 10:17. But that was as close as the Slovaks would get, despite generating some late pressure on the power play and pulling their goalie for the extra attacker.

Final shots favored Canada 39-27. Smolensky said of Durny's performance: "He was fantastic, and he saved many chances from the Canadian team."

 

[hckošice 14,899]

this feeling when you defeat the czechs..

 

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Sweden - Russia  5-1

 

 

 

 

[hckošice 14,899]

Blue is number two

Sweden tops Russia, finishes second in Group A

The puck gets past Russia's Maxim Zhukov #30 for a Sweden first period goal during preliminary round action at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship

 

 

With a 5-1 win over Russia at the Ralph Engelstad Arena on Tuesday, Sweden wrapped up second place in Group A behind the U.S. heading into the quarter-finals.

 

The Swedes put the game away with three goals in less than three minutes early in the second period.

Lias Andersson led the way with two goals, and Tim Wahlgren, Oskar Steen, and Axel Jonsson Fjallby also scored for Sweden. Timothy Liljegren added a pair of helpers. Goalie Filip Gustavsson got the win as the Swedes outshot Russia 40-23.

Of finishing second in the group, Andersson said with a smile: "That’s better than third. That was our goal before the game, to win versus the Russians and take second place. The U.S. is a good team, so we’ll have to beat them maybe in the semi-finals or finals."

In Thursday’s quarter-finals, the Swedes will face the winner of the Slovakia-Czech Republic game.

Coach Torgny Bendelin's troops look to have improved during the preliminary round. After edging underdog Latvia 4-3 in overtime and falling 6-1 to the defending champion U.S., they slammed Switzerland 8-1 before posting another convincing victory here.

Andrei Svechnikov had the lone goal for Russia, which had an up-and-down run in the round-robin.

"We played a bad game," said Russian assistant captain Mikhail Sergachyov. "We didn’t play our structure the way the coach told us to play. We just lost the game. We got some bad penalties and played on the penalty kill a lot. "

On Monday, three different games saw the victorious team prevail by seven goals. This wasn’t quite that lopsided, but it wasn’t a vintage Sweden-Russia battle.

This has been a very even rivalry over the year, dating back to the inaugural IIHF World U18 Championship in 1999. Prior to this game, Sweden had won five and lost six of the 11 meetings. However, this matchup was different in that it featured a primarily U17 roster for Russia, and the age difference would be telling.

"We’re obviously a young team, and we’ve got to play better and better," said Sergachyov. "It’s the first tournament like this for the boys, and it’s tough to play, especially against teams like Sweden and the States or even Switzerland."

At 11:52, the Swedes opened the scoring on a broken play. Coming out of the corner, Andersson tried to pass the puck past Dmitri Samorukov, but it bounced right back to him off the Russian defenceman. Andersson then surprised Russian starting netminder Maxim Zhukov with a quick low backhander on the glove side.

"I tried to shoot with my backhand and it went in," said Andersson. "So that was perfect. Good job by my linemates, Alexander Nylander and Elias Pettersson."

With Sweden dominating play 5-on-5, Russia’s best hope was to capitalize on the power play. However, they proved ineffective with a man advantage before the buzzer. Shots favored Sweden 15-5 in the first period.

The teams were four-a-side when Sweden grabbed a 2-0 lead on an odd-man rush just 52 seconds into the middle frame. Linus Lindstrom skated into the left faceoff circle and sent a centering pass past Veniamin Baranov, and Wahlgren fired it through the goalie’s legs. It was the 18-year-old Modo Ornskoldsvik forward’s fourth goal in the last two games.

At 2:20, the Swedes gained an insurmountable 3-0 lead when Steen whacked the rebound from Liljegren’s point shot past Zhukov.

Danil Tarasov was substituted between the Russian pipes, to no avail. Less than a minute later, Andersson cruised into the right faceoff circle on the power play and snapped the puck over a kneeling Tarasov’s glove to make it 4-0.

Sweden showed good discipline for the most part, but captain Jacob Cederholm was sent off for boarding on a rough hit on Ivan Kozlov behind the Swedish net shortly after the midpoint of the game. Once again, the Russians couldn’t get anything going on the power play. The Swedes outchecked and outhustled them, blocking shots with great resolve.

In the third period, Jonsson Fjallby zinged a wrister from the right faceoff dot past Tarasov’s blocker for the fifth Swedish goal at 11:37.

All the Russians could aspire to now was spoiling Gustavsson's shutout bid. Svechnikov achieved that with a nice goal with 3:41 left, cutting hard to the net and tucking it past the goalie.

"I think we played a solid game over 60 minutes," Andersson said.