Team Canada Fans Beerless In World Junior Hockey Championship Stands

“I thought we had a lot of good chances”, said Marner.

While the preliminary-round win doesn’t put the Americans closer to a medal, it bolsters the team’s confidence and serves notice that the Americans have the talent necessary to win it all in the tournament that boasts the world’s best under-20 players. Schmaltz had two shots on goal but was held without a point. Nedeljkovic made a great stop on an initial cross-crease pass to Chartier, but the puck dropped right in front of Gauthier at the side of the net, who made a great pass from his knees to a trailing Mathew Barzal. “We know both teams will be coming out gunning from the get-go”.

Canada’s Rourke Chartier (14) takes a shot from a teammate as the United States’ Nick Schmaltz (9) tries to check him away from the crease during second period preliminary hockey action at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015. It made for an interesting juxtaposition each time they showed American coach Ron Wilson. That’s what they did by playing a scoreless first period, keeping the game low-scoring, and having the game decided by who got the good bounce late in the game.

I have to admit to not being an expert on these young players. McDonald was burned for five goals in the third period against Sweden.

Jake Virtanen and Marcus Patterson scored two goals each for Canada yesterday.

Following four round-robin games, the top-four teams in each five-team group advance to the playoff round.

With three and a half minutes left to go in the middle frame, Team USA tied the game up at one. I think they need to work on that before the next game. It looked to be a promising game as the first period ended and there was still no score.

This year, three prominent American teenagers – Jack Eichel (Sabres), Dylan Larkin (Red Wings) and Noah Hanifin (Hurricanes) – aren’t playing in the WJC because their National Hockey League team won’t allow it. Only Canada had that problem previously.

In another Pool A game Saturday, Boston University’s Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson scored in Sweden’s 8-3 win over Switzerland.

But the Canadians get that test early, and it should bode well for them later in the tournament, especially if they beat the Americans in the opener.

In Group B, Russian Federation edged the Czech Republic 2-1 in a shootout, and Finland routed Belarus 6-0.