After Canada’s loss to the U.S. in the final preliminary round game of the World Junior Hockey Championship, the home team went to Montreal for the medal round with real questions about team chemistry.
A 5-3 win over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Monday night answered a lot of those questions.
Who starts?
Foremost among those questions was the matter of goaltending. Canada was going to have to start someone against the Czechs, but your guess was as good as anybody’s. And there’s no doubt that coach Dominique Ducharme was guessing and hoping when he gave the start to Connor Ingram, who stopped 16 of 19 shots to pick up the victory.
A week ago Ingram was presumed likely to get into one game at the world juniors. The starter’s job was Carter Hart’s to lose, and apparently he has done exactly that. Ingram was adequate against the Czechs if you went by the end result. He was blameless on the first goal (on the Czech’s fourth shot of the game late in the first period, a puck that took a carom off—literally—a Slovak referee’s gluteus maximus). The second one was dicey, however, and it came 11 minutes later on the Czechs’ fifth shot of the game.
Of that goal by Tomas Soustal, Ducharme said politely: "[Ingram] knows he can get that one." "Can" here can be read as "should."
Players gather around Canada goaltender Connor Ingram to celebrate their 5-3 victory over Czech Republic. (Paul Chiasson/CP)
With Canada in front 3-2 in the third, Ingram did make a big save early on Martin Necas who was bearing down on the Canadian net—Ingram turned him aside with a right pad kicked out. However, the same sort of save turned into the Czechs’ third goal. Ingram kicked a shot from Petr Kalina right onto the stick of Simon Stransky who buried a one-timer.
Ducharme didn’t even give Ingram a vote of confidence in advance of Wednesday’s semifinal against Sweden. Asked if Ingram is the likely starter, the coach said: “We’ll see. We’ll talk about it.”
Who or what is Clague-Myers?
With top-pair defenceman Philippe Myers knocked out of the lineup on a big hit from U.S. captain Luke Kunin in Canada’s last game, the home team was down to six defencemen. It didn’t seem like there was an easy fit to take Myers’s place beside Thomas Chabot.
Enter Cale Clague. Playing on his wrong side, Clague went plus-two with two assists in the third period. While he doesn’t offer a physical presence like the six-foot-five Myers, Clague was useful and sure-handed.
Who’ll be the unlikely hero to step up?
Anthony Cirelli came into the tournament ostensibly as a fourth-line centre, a penalty killer and a designated faceoff man. Yet in the win over the Czechs, like each game in the opening round, the Oshawa Generals’ unlikely Memorial Cup hero from two seasons ago seemingly did something every shift that caught your eye.
The prettiest play was a faceoff win, the puck drawn right onto the tape of Mitchell Stephens’ stick. Cirelli also picked up the second assist on Chabot’s goal, which put Canada in front 3-2 13 minutes into the second period, a lead the home team wouldn’t surrender.
Unlikely? Cirelli was undrafted coming out of minor midget and wound up being a third-rounder of Tampa Bay in 2015. Against the Czechs he had a much better game than Dylan Strome, the third overall pick in the same draft.
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But for as many questions that were answered Monday, some weren’t.
Can Canada get out to a fast start against a quality opponent?
Okay, Canada started well against Russia in the opening game of the tournament, but a sluggish start (and Ingram’s dicey puck-stopping) put Canada in a very early 2-0 hole against the U.S. If you looked only at the shots on goal, it looked like the home side roared out against the Czechs.
Despite outshooting the Czechs 11-4 in the first period, the Canadians generated no more than one or two scoring chances. The Czechs were content to give Canada a free run through the neutral zone and then clogged the shooting lanes, hoping for a turnover and breakout. They weren’t the first team from the Czech Republic to take their shot as counterpunchers and they won’t be the last. Thus the possession numbers and shots wouldn’t tell the whole story. David Kase gave the Czechs a lead near the 16-minute mark, and while it came against play—and as noted a ref’s posterior—it wasn’t exactly a shocker.
Can Pierre-Luc Dubois come to life?
Doubtful. Again, Columbus’ first rounder, third overall last June, was M.I.A.
Dubois struggled in the first weeks of the QMJHL season and showed little in selection camp—by all accounts he made the team by rep as much as merit. If Dubois is going to have an impact in this tournament it will almost certainly be the result of his line mates, left-winger Julien Gauthier and centre Nicolas Roy.
Gauthier was rightfully named player of the game for the winning and insurance goals in the third period. After the Canadians’ sluggish and passionless start, Gauthier started going hard to the net and creating problems for Jakub Skarek. Gauthier played as a draft-eligible in the last world juniors and he was expected to be a game-shaper this trip. If there’s any forward who can match strength and presence in front of the net in this tournament, it would be American Jordan Greenway—no one else is close.
Canada forward Julien Gauthier (12) scores on Czech Republic goaltender Jakub Skarek (2) during the third period. (Ryan Remiorz/CP)
Roy has been a revelation all tournament. Many scouts cooled on him in his draft year, believing that he lacked nerve and urgency in his game. In the world juniors he has surely been the most consistent centre (Matt Barzal might have earned those honours before Monday night, but he wasn’t really noticeable in the last 40 minutes against the Czechs).
Canada or Sweden?
Erik Cernak knows all about the world juniors, knows it as well and probably better than anyone on the ice this past few days. This was his fourth trip to the tournament. In his second, Cernak and the Slovaks upset the heavily-favoured Swedes in the bronze-medal game at the Air Canada Centre, the second-most memorable tilt in that tournament, only outdone by Canada’s narrow win over Russia in the final.
There was no minor miracle for Slovakia this year, not landing in the side of the draw with the U.S., Canada and Russia. That translated into three straight losses and only a win over Latvia moved them ahead into the elimination round. A date with Sweden in the quarters looked a lot more daunting than the bronze-medal game two years ago. The Swedes rolled through four straight wins in the opening round in Montreal and, in doing so, looked like the most skilled team in the tournament.
Sweden absolutely dominated Slovakia in the quarterfinals Monday, racing out to a 5-0 lead and then coasting home with an 8-3 win. Yet when asked to call the favourite in the semifinal between the Swedes and Canada, Cernak didn’t equivocate.
"I think Canada [wins] on the smaller ice," he said, the effect preceding the cause.