And Then There Were Four

Quarterfinals day at the World Junior Championship is always a tough day as four teams will see their tournaments end at this point. I know that it becomes a logistical nightmare for organizers, but I kind of wish that these four teams who fell today could stick around for a consolation side of the medal round where placements fifth through eighth could properly be determined. After all, no like ending any tournament with a loss. It's not to be, though, and four teams lived to play for medals as Russia, Finland, Canada, and US all moved into the semifinals.

Being that they won me over, I won't lie when I say that I was cheering for the Germans to upset the Russians. It nearly happened, too, as Florian Elias had a couple of great looks at times, but simply couldn't convert. At the end of the day, the lacklustre Russians survived this game with a 2-1 victory when, at times, it appeared that the Germans simply wanted it more.

That's not to say that Germany dominated the Russians, but that top German line of Peterka-Stützle-Elias made me believers in this German team. Peterka will be off to Buffalo and Stützle will head to Ottawa with Germany being eliminated, but Ottawa should be tracking down the agent for Florian Elias right now to bring him to camp as well. We know Stützle can score and Peterka showed some moxie as well, but it was Elias who really made a name for himself as an undrafted forward in this tournament.

The imagination and creativity shown by Stützle really seemed to open up space for Elias. And while there's no guarantee that Elias would even make Ottawa's squad, the chemistry shown by these two players in a short period of time should have had Ottawa scouts salivating. We'll see where Elias ends up eventually, but my hope is he finds a winger spot beside Stützle at some point soon.

From Germany-Russia, we laid witness to Sweden-Finland in another epic battle between these two nations. Sweden came out of the gate looking like the two losses in the round robin they suffered would be their last for a long time. After building a 2-0 lead through twenty minutes, though, the Finns took what they learned in the opening frame and completely flipped the script on Sweden.

Finland has been one of the better hockey nations for the last decade, and they have the trophy case to show it. It seemed like Sweden had a chance to really bury Finland if they played the rest of the game as they did in the first period, but some sloppy play and a preference to almost sit back and defend a two-goal lead for forty minutes really undid everything good they did in the first period.

Finland would score five minutes into the second period to make it a 2-1 game, but a disallowed goal minutes later is what seemed to really spark the fire for the Finns as they poured on all sorts of pressure and shots from that point. Despite the Swedes clinging to the one-goal lead after two periods of play, you could almost sense the walls caving in on them as the Finns continued to lay siege on the Swedish net.

With nine minutes to play, Anton Lundell scored on a power-play to pull Finland square at 2-2, and the Swedes suddenly realized that playing for the tie wasn't what they needed. Despite them pressing back, the Finns tore the hearts of Sweden out with 23.3 seconds to play when Swedish netminder Hugo Alnefelt seemed to lose track of the puck, allowing Roni Hirvonen to wrap the puck around the post between Alnefelt's skate and the post to give Finland the 3-2 victory.

Yes, I know you've had to listen to entire TSN crew talk about him all tournament long, but Brad Lambert looks like he's a surefire top-five pick in 2022 based on his play this season. While many factors can change between now and the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Lambert's game has to be liked by all scouts as he has a motor that doesn't stop, the puck seems to find his stick, and he's hard to knock off the puck once it's on his tape. I'm not suggesting a "Tank for Lambert" scenario, but he looks like he'll be a very good player.

The Czech Republic-Canada game went very well for Canada for the opening ten minutes before they seemed to forget that the Czechs are a talented team. Surprising virtually everyone, the Czechs led in shots through the opening twenty minutes, but they trailed 2-0 on the scoreboard.

The middle frame saw the two teams play a much more even period despite Canada outshooting the Czechs by an 11-6 margin. Leading back to my comments on the skill levels between teams, it's pretty clear that the effort by the Czechs was there, but the overall talent to finish was not when compared to Canada. Full credit to the Czechs for putting up a heckuvan effort, but they simply couldn't solve Devon Levi or the Canadian defence in a 3-0 loss.

Montreal appears to have another good young player on the way in with the effort shown by Jan Myšák in this tournament. Myšák was often the best player on the ice for the Czechs in each of their games, and it's not hard to see why the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs are big on this kid. Myšák looks like he's going to do just fine in the bleu-blanc-et-rouge in Montreal.

Slovakia and the US seems like a bit of a mismatch, but let's give the Slovaks a little credit for putting the Americans on their heels for a portion of this game. With the US comfortably leading 3-0 late in the second period, Matej Kaslik found the back of the net for the Slovaks to make it a 3-1 game. A power-play goal by Dominik Sojka early in the third period suddenly had everyone wearing the stars and stripes a little tense, but John Farinacci restored the two-goal lead just minutes after Sojka's marker as the Americans showed some resolve.

With Matt Beniers adding an empty-netter, the Slovaks fell 5-2 in their quarterfinal appearance, but they showed that they can be dangerous. Again, like their Czech neighbours, this comes down to overall talent they can send over the boards. The effort they showed against the Americans was good enough to keep this game close, but the net loss in individual talent hurts Slovakia in the long run.

I really liked Simon Latkoczy's effort all tournament long in the nets. While it's easy to point at stats and say he had a bad tournament, let's not forget that the Slovakian defence wasn't as robust as some of the other teams. Latkoczy stole the game against the Swiss early in the tournament to help the Slovaks reach the medal round, and he'll be available for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft this summer if a team is looking for a goaltender who battles hard on every play.

With the wins, Canada will now face Russia on Monday while the Finns meet up with the Americans. I'm not a betting man by any means, but I like Canada and I'm taking the Finns in an upset over the Americans. Of course, if you use these predictions for your own wagering, all money is refundable if my picks miss!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!