World Junior Championship (Day 2)
The World Junior Tournament entered the second day after a loaded Boxing Day Schedule. The biggest news may have been coming out of the Canadian Camp who lost their physical leader in Devonte Smith-Pelly who broke his foot in the opening game. Smith-Pelly will be out for the rest of the tournament but he will stick with Team Canada as a leader for the team. Meanwhile as the Canadians look to move on without the on ice presence of Smith-Pelly, the rest of the teams look to continue their tournament relatively unscathed. With 8 teams in action on day 1 there were still another two teams to kick off their tournament as two more teams started their tournament off with two games in as many days. Every team will go through this as the tournament is a short tournament and will only run for two weeks. Every team will play back to back games and Day 2 was the first day for back to back games. The stories were familiar as some teams were able to show their strengths and others had their weaknesses exposed from the start.
Pool A:
The Latvians have been a teetering team as they have been up and down from the big tournament to the Division I tournament. This year they were trying to stay out of relegation but they did not get out to a good start. In their first game the Latvians took on the Swedes and hung in to the game but could not pull out the wins allowing 9 goals. The Slovakians finalized their roster in Day 1 in their day off of the tournament. They were also looking to stay out of the relegation round by starting their tournament off with a win. The Latvians had more opportunities in the first period getting three power plays but failing to score on any of them. They were not completely outplayed however as the Slovakians could not get past Latvian goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis. In the second it was a different story as the Latvians finally took advantage of an opportunity and opened the scoring when Juris Ziemins put the first goal in the net giving the Latvians the lead. With a great performance by Gudlevskis the Latvians were able to keep the lead but eventually the Slovakians broke through as Tomas Jurco finally solved Gudlevskis. With the game tied 1-1 the Latvians moved into another gear as they put some major pressure on the Slovaks. They could not capitalize on their pressure as they ended the second period without scoring again. The Third period started with the Slovaks taking their first lead of the game after Marek Tvrdon put in a goal off a rebound. The Latvians continued to pressure and almost got a tying goal from Ziemins and Edgars Klavins but they could not put the puck in the net to tie the game. The Slovaks held off the Latvian offence and added another goal to put the game away. The Slovaks started off their tournament in good form taking the win as they will move on to face Russia in their next game. The Latvians lost their second game of the tournament as they look to be a long shot to avoid relegation this year. The one positive for the Latvians is that they have hung around in both games so far and if they can continue to get great performances from Gudlevskis, he saved 42 shots against Slovakia, they may be able to pull off an upset if a team overlooks them in the round robin. With every team done their first games, the Latvians are done their second, the Russians, Slovaks, and Swedes are sitting at the top of the Pool A standings with many more games to go.
Scores:
Slovakia 3 – 1 Latvia
Pool B:
The Danes were on the ice for the second time in as many nights as they tried to recover from their opening game against the Americans. In Day 1 Denmark started their tournament off in the worst way losing the USA 11-3 as their defence was exposed. Meanwhile the Czech Republic was not in action on Day 1 with a day off. The Czechs had fresh legs as they took on the Danes hoping to get their tournament started right with a win. It did not seem like much of a challenge to the Czechs though as they were in control form the drop of the puck. The game opened with the Czechs starting much slower than expected only scoring one goal in the first period on a powerplay. Tomas Hertl scored the first goal on a deflection in the first period putting the Czechs on the right path in the game. The Danes did not have the same performance as they hoped to capitalize on their own powerplays, they scored three powerplay goals against the USA. The Danes got three powerplays in the first period but they could not capitalize on any of them only managing 2 shots in the entire period. The second period saw the Czechs completely take over the game as Tomas Hertl scored his second goal to open the second period that saw Radek Faksa score another goal. The Czechs were ahead 3-0 by the end of the second period and then added another four goals in the third period as they took the win in their first tournament game. Petr Mrazek got the easy shutout as he only faced 12 shots all game. Mrazek’s counterpart was not as lucky as Sebastian Feuk faced 44 shots in the game but only managed to save 37 of the shots in a relentless attack. Denmark has not started off their tournament very well and look on their way to another relegation unless thay can win out in their next two games. Meanwhile The Czech Republic have joined USA and Canada as the top three teams in Pool B.
Scores:
Czech Republic 7 – 0 Denmark
Standings:
Pool A:
1. Sweden (3)
2. Russia (3)
3. Slovakia (3)
4. Switzerland (0)
5. Latvia (0)
Pool B:
1. USA (3)
2. Canada (3)
3. Czech Republic (3)
4. Finland (0)
5. Denmark (0)
Day 3:
Finland vs. USA (December 28th; 3:30 pm)
– Finland will try to recover from their first game loss to the Canadians by taking on the Americans who are coming off of a big win where their offence proved to be much better than many though
Switzerland vs. Sweden (December 28th; 5:30 pm)
– Sweden is coming off their first game win against the Latvians where they scored 9 goals but allowed 4 goals which the Swiss will look to take advantage of the apparent hole in the defence but it will not be easy as the Swiss were shutout by Russia in their first game
Czech Republic vs. Canada (December 28th; 8:00 pm)
– the Czech Republic will be coming off of their first game in the tournament only one day after against the host team that will be without one of their leaders in Devonte Smith-Pelly as both teams look to continue their early tournament success
Slovakia vs. Russia (December 28th; 10:00 pm)
– Slovakia will have a tough test after barely holding off the Latvians as they take on defending champions Russia who will hope to have another great performance by their goalie Andrei Vasilevski who saved 40 shots in Russia’s first game
The Sport Addiction 
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