2006 World Juniors Hockey Championship

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Pekka
yeah, I was counting on goal difference in that, so tie would be the MINIMUM we'd have to do.

Absolute minimum-- heck if you beat the US and they beat Canada, you could still end up 3rd on goal difference. A 4 goal loss really hurts for that stuff.

Its still way too early to tell-- PLus the Swiss can be suprising-- you never know when they can knock someone off

Originally posted by Pekka


I think Slovakia will be easier than US, yes.

How about the Russians or Czechs? The Swedes did not look good and seem to have had weak junior teams for a few years now

[Pekka]

Russians or Czechs. tough to say.. they are both pretty good this year... I mean better than us. Sweden has also had few dry years. Don't know how long it will continue, at least our situation is about to improve.

Between Russia and Czechs, it's a coin flip for me.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Flubber


Thats pretty brave language considering . . .

Who cares? I don't speak English anyway.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Serb

Who cares? I don't speak English anyway.

Ahh-- That explains much

[Asher]

Canada vs Switzerland is on in 1/2 hour.

[Pekka]

USA vs Finland ended, 6-5 Ngggh!

And I missed that game too! They say our goalie sucked very very bad in that game, and it was totally winnable...

So good news is that maybe they got some drive for the games in the second round of games and self confidence.

[Flubber]

And canada won over Switzerland only 4-3 in one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. It wasn't one sided, the ref made stupid calls on each team and it looked sometimes as if touching another player was a penalty.

The Swiss goalie played out of his mind and IIRC the Swiss had less than 20 shots. Pogge player "ok" in the canadian nets. All 3 goals were either screened or deflections so its hard to blame him but he really didn't have to stop much since most of the shots were pretty easy

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Pekka
USA vs Finland ended, 6-5 Ngggh!

And I missed that game too! They say our goalie sucked very very bad in that game, and it was totally winnable...

So good news is that maybe they got some drive for the games in the second round of games and self confidence.

Thats a tough one and just goes to show that Finland is much better than they showed in their game with Canada. I wouldn't look beyond the first round yet. The Swiss are good enough to upset the Finns . . . I don't think it will happen but it is possible and a loss to the Swiss would put the Finns in the relegation round

[Flubber]

VANCOUVER (CP) - Blake Wheeler scored a pair of goals as the U.S. overcame an early 2-0 deficit to defeat a feisty Finnish team 6-5 Wednesday at the world junior hockey championships.

Wheeler, who was still in high school when the Phoenix Coyotes picked him fifth overall in last summer's draft, made a pretty play on his second goal to put the U.S. up 5-3 with just 42 seconds left in the second period.

The Plymouth, Minn., native took a pass from Bobby Ryan on his backhand, neatly pulled it to his forehand, then beat Finnish goaltender Karri Ramo.

Ryan had a power-play goal and two assists for the Americans, who improved their tournament record to 2-0.

Tom Fritsche, Brian Lee and Kevin Porter also had power-play goals for the U.S.





Rob Schremp, the leading scorer in the Ontario Hockey League, added three assists. Phil Kessel, projected to be the first pick in this year's NHL draft, collected two assists, giving him seven for the tournament.

Mikko Alikoski, Aki Seitsonen, Lauri Tukonen, Lauri Korpikoski and Teemu Laakso scored for Finland, which dropped to 0-2.

The U.S. outshot Finland 43-34.

The Americans looked to have the game in hand when Finland pulled its goalie with 2:13 left in the third. Laakso made it 6-5 with a power-play goal with 1:12 left in the game.

Earlier Wednesday, Canada defeated Switzerland 4-3 in Vancouver, Russia beat Slovakia 6-2 in Kelowna and Sweden edged the Czech Republic 3-2 in Kamloops.

The Americans, who rolled over Norway 11-2 in their opening game of the tournament Monday, seemed surprised by Finland's early intensity.

The Finns built an early 2-0 lead on goals by Alikoski and Korpikoski while the Americans didn't muster a shot on net until the game was just over seven minutes old.

Korpikoski's short-handed goal at 8:26 of the first ranks as one of the prettiest of the tournament.

The play started when American forward Chris Bourque coughed up the puck in the offensive zone. Korpikoski, a first-round pick of the NHL's New York Rangers, beat an American defenceman for the puck along the boards near centre ice, then used blazing speed to break in on goaltender Jeff Frazee and beat him with a backhand shot.

The Americans fought their way back into the game when Fritsche scored on a scramble during a power play, then Wheeler made it 2-2 when he took Mueller's pass from behind the net and beat Ramo.

Lee gave the Americans their first lead with just 31 seconds left in the first period with a shot from just inside the blue-line that the Finnish goalie didn't see.

Penalties proved costly for the Finns as the Americans were 4-for-14 on the power play. In a 3:43 span in the second period Swedish referee Marcus Vinnerborg called five of six penalties against Finland, including a four-minute high-sticking penalty to Leo Komarov.

The 16,878-seat Pacific Coliseum was about three-quarters full for the game. The vocal crowd was pro-Finland and loudly booed the Americans when ever given the chance.

The Americans play Switzerland Friday, then wrap up preliminary-round play Saturday against Canada.

Notes: Six of the previous seven games between the U.S. and Finland were decided by two goals or less, including four one-goal games. ... Ryan Suter, a former U.S. junior team player and now a member of the NHL Nashville Predators, stopped in at the American morning skate. The Predators played the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday. ... The 11 goals scored against Norway Monday night is the most by a U.S. team at the world juniors since 1991.

In other action Wednesday night, Russia romped against Slovakia 6-2 in Kelowna in a game that included a melee involving Russian star Evgeni Malkin.

Malkin, Gennady Churilov, Nikolai Lemtyugov, Enver Lisin, Ilia Zubov and Alexei Emelin scored for Russia while Andrej Sekera and Stanislav Lascek had markers for Slovakia.

In Kamloops, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic 3-2, with goals coming from Sebastian Karlsson, Johannes Salmonsson and Oscar Hedman. Vladimir Sobotka and Tomas Kana replied for the Czechs.

Not shocked to see Russia win easily. I did not expect to see Sweden take out the Czechs. Its looking like Russia will be first in that pool and 3 teams will fight for positions 2 and 3.

In Canada's pool, both Canada and the US are pretty much guaranteed to go through and Norway is ehaded to relegation. Finland can take heart from their close loss to the US but the reality is that they MUST beat the Swiss to advance. I think they will but I would not be totally shocked if the Swiss managed to beat them.

[Pekka]

Flubber, yeah it's like I said, they were playing bad in their first game, even though not favourites, they can do better and last game showed it.

You know 4 US goals were PP, we got like what.. 14 penalties in that game. It goes to show that either the reffing is bad, or our team is dirty. I'd say it's somewhere in between. The ref was extrmeely bad in that game but it went both ways. US got BS calls too, but I think we just got little more of them. But it didn't decide the game for US, because we scored on PP too.

And about our team, I'd say they should watch their sticks a bit more and start hitting more. The hooking etc, it's like a plague, and it'll cost.

Also the Swiss junior teams are definitely not a joke. They have challenged good teams for years now, so I'd say they are close to the good teams OR they already are the good team. It's not like this is a freak year, they do it all the time with their junior teams. Which is great, I love to see more teams stepping it up, make it more exciting.....

And I'm not counting on a winn against them either, it'll be a tough one.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Pekka


Also the Swiss junior teams are definitely not a joke. They have challenged good teams for years now, so I'd say they are close to the good teams OR they already are the good team. It's not like this is a freak year, they do it all the time with their junior teams. Which is great, I love to see more teams stepping it up, make it more exciting.....

And I'm not counting on a winn against them either, it'll be a tough one.

I agree -- the Swiss are not a joke but they are still traditionally below teams like Canada by a good step. For instance, they have never beaten or tied Canada at a World Junior. But this team was decent.

I watched both Canadian games and the difference to me was that the Swiss never ever backed down physically. They played in-your-face the whole way. However the Swiss are still limited. All 5 of their goals in the tournament so far have been on the powerplay and only beating Norway 2-0 shows they don't have a ton of offense. But they do play pretty solid defense and their goaltending looks solid.

Overall I favour Finland but if you judged solely on their games against canada, you would have to be liking the Swiss

[trickey]

The Swiss definatly have a decent team this year. They showed that they have some speed, can move the puck, and like Flubber said, they won't back down physically. They were not afraid to go into the corners, and even threw a few big hits themselves.

From what I've seen so far the Swiss could be on the same level as Slovakia. Not a really a serious contender for a medal, but they could upset a top team if they are taken to lightly.

[Ninot]

I don't like the lines Team Canada is rolling this year. They seem full of energy but with little cooperation

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Ninot
I don't like the lines Team Canada is rolling this year. They seem full of energy but with little cooperation

Hopefully they will begin to click soon-- The problem with these events is that players don't have a lot of time to get used to one another

[Flubber]

I watched the canada Norway game and Canada looked very good but the refereeing was atrocious. The game set a record for the most penalties ever in a game involving Canada and it wasn't even rough or that chippy. After the game they played clips of a bunch of the penalties and most of them looked to be solid bodychecks that were too successful. It seemed the referee believed that any check that knocked an opponent down was a penalty.

The fans were booing on every penalty call, even when the penalty was against the Norwegians !!!

Canada outshot Norway 50-13 and IIRC Norway got 10 of those shots during their 11 powerplays. Defensively Canada looked strong and but for strong play by the Norwegian goalie ( he was their star of the game) the net could have been filled