World Junior Championship recap: Canada routs Germany, USA shocked by Slovakia
Slovakia doubled up the Americans, while Canada sent 11 past Germany on an interesting, but quiet day in world junior action.
Slovakia pulls off stunner against Americans
Slovakia has pulled off a significant upset at the World Junior Championship, beating USA 6-3 on Wednesday.
This is the fifth time Slovakia has managed to beat the Americans at this tournament, with the last win coming on this day in 2017. The wins puts Slovakia in third and USA and fourth, with every team in Group B grabbing at least one point after two games each. The win puts Slovakia in a good spot to avoid relegation, but will likely still need to beat Latvia later in the tournament.
It didn’t take long for the Slovaks to strike first. At 2:14, Simon Nemec created the scoring chance that saw his team strike near the net. There, Libor Nemec knocked the puck over the goal line and in for the 1-0 goal.
The Americans answered back with a pair of goals, with Tyler Boucher scoring at 4:42 on a crease-crashing situation of his own. Two minutes later, Lane Hutson’s shot was tipped in by Gavin Brindley in front of the Slovak net to give USA its only lead of the game.
Canada crushes Germany in near-historic effort by Bedard
After a surprising loss to Czechia on the first day of play, Canada took no prisoners on Wednesday, beating Germany 11-2.
The star of the show was Connor Bedard, who led the way with three goals and four assists. His seven-point effort tied the all-time record for points by a Canadian at the tournament with Dave Andreychuk, Brenden Morrow, Mike Cammalleri and Gabriel Bourque. Bedard’s eight points put him in sole possession of first in tournament scoring after just two games.
Bedard is projected to go first overall in the upcoming draft, with his six-point effort coming exactly one year after he scored four goals as a double-underager against Austria.
Bedard helped set the first goal up, finding Dylan Guenther all alone for the 1-0 power-play goal. Roman Kechter would get one for Germany five minutes later, but Shane Wright answered back two minutes later, and Bedard scored one of his own at 17:26 to make it 3-1 heading into the break. Bedard wasted no time scoring his second just 1:02 into the second and finished off the hat-trick at 33:57, also on the power play.
The Germans suffered a significant loss at 35:49 when top defenseman Rayan Bettahar was ejected for an illegal hit to the head on Adam Fantilli. Canada made them pay, with Guenther scoring a pair and Logan Stsanooven and Brandt Clarke both scoring once to give Canada four goals on the five-minute advantage.
Canada didn’t let off in the third. At 41:22, Zach Ostapchuk scored his first of the tournament, only for Roy to do the same off of a Bedard feed nine minutes later. A slew of late-game penalties started to slow Canada’s pace, however, and Philipp Sinn scored with the man advantage to record Germany’s second goal of the game.
Three Stars
- Connor Bedard, F (Canada, 2023): He had seven points. He’s good.
- Simon Nemec, D (Slovakia, NJD): Not only did he have three assists, but he generally did a fantastic job of shutting down USA’s top forwards.
- Dylan Guenther, F (Canada, ARI): If the Canadians were on the power play and Guenther was on the ice, you could count on a goal. He had three of them, displaying his NHL-quality shot every time.