Men’s World Championship Recap: Lane Hutson, MacKenzie Weegar shine on Day 6

Steven Ellis
Steven Ellis
IIHF

By this time next week in Finland and Latvia, we’ll know which eight teams will play for a shot at the World Championship.

But today, we instead saw two close games, and a pair of more one-sided affairs. It started with the United States beating Austria 4-1, giving them a perfect 4-0 record before getting the next two days off. In Riga, Latvia edged Norway 2-1, a win that will definitely help the Latvians in the fight to make the playoff round.

In the evening, Canada smoked Kazakhstan 5-1 to take top spot in Group B, while Finland just held on with a 5-3 win over France to take fourth spot in Group A.

Here’s a look at the top performers on Wednesday:

USA cruises to win over Austria

  • Lane Hutson (MTL) started the game as the seventh defenseman, but he used that as an opportunity to make his own path. The college defender scored perhaps the goal of the tournament, going coast-to-coast before splitting the Austrian defense with a nice move. He also added an assist, helping him earn player of the game honors for the Americans. There are a lot of eyes on Hutson at this tournament and for good reason. Today was yet another great showing from the NCAA blueliner.
  • I’ve just loved what Carter Mazur (DET) has done for the Americans. He just seems to know where he needs to be and uses the extra space to his advantage. He scored on an excellent shot for the Americans, and was one of the more noticeable forwards up front.
  • T.J. Tynan (LAK) won’t get much credit for his play, but the AHL star has three points in the past two games. That includes an assist today on Mazur’s goal, which was impressive in itself. He has another year left on his deal, and, hopefully, the Kings like what they’re seeing.
  • Nick Perbix (TBL) has had some rough moments, but it had to feel good to score a goal and add an assist. He played a solid, mostly mistake-free game, and that’s all you can ask for from a young guy like him.
  • Cal Petersen (LAK) made 18 saves, but it definitely wasn’t an easy night for him. It’s good to see him playing with confidence after a rough showing in the exhibition game against Germany last week. That was essentially a millennium ago, but given his status as the backup, and the rough year with the Kings, it’s good to see him playing well.
  • Thomas Raffl has scored all three of his goals right in front of the net. The likes of Marco Rossi (MIN) and Peter Schneider make things easy for him that way, but talk about a guy being in the right spot at the right time.

Canada beats Kazakhstan to stay perfect

  • So, it looks like Sammy Blais (STL) CAN score for a team outside of Missouri. Blais had three points on Canada’s fourth line today, including the fifth goal off of a strange bounce. Blais is always chasing the puck and trying to force turnovers, and now he’s up to a point per game through four outings.
  • Speaking of the Blues, Joel Hofer (STL) made his men’s national team debut and looked great. The one goal against was a bit rough, but he made a few stops on some high-danger chances from a Kazakh team trying to desperately gain some momentum. That’ll likely be his one start, but it was good experience for a guy looking to crack the NHL full-time in 2023-24.
  • Joe Veleno (DET) was also part of that fourth checking line for Canada, and he scored a goal and assisted on two others. Things just seemed to work for Veleno around the net.
  • MacKenzie Weegar (CGY) now leads the tournament with eight points, which is incredible. He scored just 19 seconds in and then found Lawson Crouse (ARI) for the 2-0 goal five minutes later. Weegar has been the best defenseman in this tournament, simple as that.

Finland edges France in important win

  • If you don’t know the legend of Marko Anttila, you’re missing out. He’s a fan favorite for the way he gives it his all every game. He’s a 6-foot-8 forward that won’t wow you offensively but has a tendency to score big goals – including the gold-medal winner against Canada in 2019. Today, he scored the third goal against France, one that will help the Finns in their quest to make the quarterfinal. It just felt fitting, and the crowd absolutely loved it.
  • It was in a losing effort, but how about French defenseman Florian Chakiachvili scoring the opening goal and adding an assist? The 31-year-old now has four points in the tournament, more than any previous showing since starting with the men’s national team in 2014. He put the Finns on their heels early and then setup Charles Bertrand‘s goal that put France back in the game late.
  • After scoring in the first game, Teemu Hartikainen finally got back on the scoresheet with the 4-2 power-play goal that proved to be the winner. He’s been really good for the Finns but just didn’t have the offense to show for. There’s some good chemistry between him and Sakari Manninen.

Latvia beats Norway 2-1

  • After some shaky starts in this tournament, Henrik Haukeland was the best player for Norway with a 30-save effort. He made 15 saves in the second period, as his team scored on their only shot of the period, but it was an unfortunate 45 seconds that saw Norway give up two goals that proved to be the difference. Otherwise, Haukeland was great.
  • Rodrigo Abols‘ goal at 23:14 gave the Latvians so much life, and they scored again on the very next shift because of it. Abols had four shots and helped keep the pressure up as one of the most effective Latvian forwards.
  • The always-electric Kaspars Daugavins made that first goal happen, and he also led all players with five shots. Just a good game all around for a usual suspect for the Latvian offense.
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