Day 3 of the World Junior Championship featured what will almost certainly be the upset of the tournament. It also saw the top two projected picks for the 2018 draft pick up a pair of points each.
Here’s an assortment of thoughts and observations from the four games contested on Thursday.
SLOVAKIA 3, USA 2
• What a win for Slovakia. Team USA had all the momentum after Buffalo Sabres pick Casey Mittelstadt tied the game with a late entry for the goal of 2017 with just 3:11 remaining in the third period. But the Slovaks would not break and Samuel Bucek’s scintillating game-winner 1:03 later was a mind-blowing response.
The last five minutes of this game were a testament to why this tournament can be so delightful. The Slovaks now have the inside track on Denmark for a berth in the quarterfinals, while the Americans have to turn around and play Canada — which was idle on Thursday — outside at New Era Field on Friday afternoon.
• Nobody has earned player-of-the-game honours quite the way Roman Durny did versus the Americans. The undrafted 19-year-old made 43 saves, none more spectacular than the left pad stop he performed on Edmonton Oilers prospect Kailer Yamamoto from point-blank range right before Slovakia took a 2-1 lead late in the third. And while Durny was the man of the hour, let’s also give a stick tap to two-goal man Filip Krivosik, whose offensive contributions kind of got buried behind the goalie’s heroics and Bucek’s bananas game-winner.
• It’s impossible to miss left winger Brady Tkachuk when he’s on the ice. If the projected top-five pick in the 2018 draft isn’t deftly guiding the puck between two goalie pads as he did on his second-period marker, he’s hacking and whacking for it in front of the net or along the boards. His line, with Montreal Canadiens 2017 first-rounder Ryan Poehling at centre and New Jersey pick Joey Anderson on the right side, was far and away America’s most dangerous trio.
Despite having plenty of quality forwards, the Americans have to be concerned about the status of Logan Brown. The Ottawa Senators first-rounder was driving the net late in the first period when he made what appeared to be fairly innocuous contact with Slovak captain Martin Bodak. Brown returned to start the second period, but his first shift resulted in him returning gingerly to the American bench and he wasn’t seen again in the contest.
SWEDEN 3, CZECH REPUBLIC 1
• William Nylander was drafted eighth overall in 2016, one spot behind Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes and a single slot ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Mikhail Sergachev. It’s safe to say Sabres fans hoped Nylander would already be making a difference in the NHL the way those two are — to say nothing of his older brother, Toronto Maple Leaf William Nylander.
While the impatience is understandable, it’s important to remember that players develop on different timelines. Watching Alex Nylander bury a beautiful third-period power-play goal against the Czechs, it’s easy to remember why he was such a high pick. Nylander’s four points in two games is tied for the team lead with Rasmus Dahlin after the defenceman picked up two more assists to go with the pair he registered in the tournament-opening win over Belarus.
• Maple Leafs 2017 first-rounder Timothy Liljegren had a major wince and an impressive wallop versus the Czechs.
In the second period, Liljegren was battling with Kristian Reichel — who was born the same year his dad, Robert Reichel, knocked Canada out of the 1998 Olympics with a semifinal shootout goal — when the Czech forward’s stick rode up between Liljegren’s legs and caught him square in the man zone. The result was some painful, quiet moments for Liljegren on the Swedish bench. He was feeling like his old self again by the third period, however, when he lined up Daniel Kurovsky trying to exit the Czech zone along the boards and unloaded one of the biggest hits of the tournament on him.
With the victory over the Czechs, the Swedes have now won an incredible 42 consecutive preliminary round contests. Sweden’s last non-medal round loss at the WJC occurred on New Year’s Eve, 2006, when it was dropped 3-2 in overtime by Team USA.
RUSSIA 5, SWITZERLAND 2
• The Russians lean on 19-year-old’s more than any team in the WJC. That being the case, highly touted Andrei Svechnikov — a 17-year-old expected to go second overall in the 2018 draft — may have to work harder for ice time than his more senior teammates.
Svechnikov was held off the scoresheet in his first game, but netted two assists in just 10:56 of ice against the Swiss (only one Russian saw less action than Svechnikov in the game). Svechnikov is one of only three Russians born after 1998 on the team and another player yet to have his 19th birthday, St. Louis Blues pick Klim Kostin, netted a goal and an assist in Thursday afternoon’s win. Maybe the Russians will have no choice but to rely more on their younger skaters than originally intended.
• We still have a long way to go before figuring out who the player of the tournament is, but Swiss coach and Montreal-born Christian Wohlwend is making his case for best character in the event. Wohlwend’s antics behind the bench are priceless, from chastising players with all-time “We talked about this yesterday!” mannerisms to tapping them on the helmet with the mini whiteboard to shaking the stuffing out of somebody who just scored a goal. It all serves as a big reminder that this is a tournament filled with kids — and some kids at heart — that should be lots of fun.
FINLAND 4, DENMARK 1
• By now, you’ve likely heard about the Finns’ talent-rich blue line, which features five first-round 2017 picks and one more from the 2016 draft. The biggest back-end stars against Denmark were captain and Calgary Flames 2017 first-rounder Juuso Valimaki (16th overall) and Henri Jokiharju, selected 29th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks last June. Both players finished with a goal and an assist, but Valimaki’s tally did a little more to grab your attention.
Positioned in the very high slot during a stretch that seemed like a Finnish power play but actually wasn’t, Valimaki took a pass from another of the highly regarded D-men, Miro Heiskanen, and positively hammered a high shot over the glove of Danish netminder Kasper Krog. If Finland is going to make noise in the tournament, you can bet your bottom Euro it will be on the strength of that blue line.
• After dropping its opening game to Canada, Finland took care of business against Denmark. Normally, there wouldn’t be any reason to panic following one loss to a contending team. However, given Finland’s disastrous showing at last year’s tourney — which included a loss to the Danes — the young Lions needed a strong response. Finland accomplished that goal by outshooting Denmark 62-7 and holding its opponents to one shot in the first period and zero in the third.
Denmark didn’t get many chances in this game, but Nikolaj Krag sure made his opportunity count. Early in the second, with his team on the power play and trailing only 2-0 at the time, Krag took the puck at the top of the circle, moved toward goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen and wired a shot that hit the back of the net before Luukonen so much as twitched a muscle. Krag, a seventh-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2016, will need to hit a few more bullseyes to help the 0-2 Danes find a win.
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