Bleacher Report - Articles by J Milton

WJHC Post Game: Canadians Still Alive

J Milton — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:38:00 -0500

The World Junior Canadian team is two wins away from a fourth straight gold medal at the World Junior Championships after defeating Finland 4-2 on Wednesday morning.

Head Coach Craig Hartsburg made a decision that surprised a lot of Canadian hockey fans—naming Steve Mason the number one goaltender through the rest of the IIHF tournament. Even though Mason stood strong between pipes, the question remains if he will be the goaltender to start the rest of the way.

The Canadians did find themselves down early in this game as the Fin’s took to an early 1-0 lead. It was the young phenomenon Jonathan Tavares who tied it up in the second period. Steven Stamkos scored in the third period giving Canada the 2-1 lead. Finland fought back and off a misread play the puck was directed off Steve Mason’s pad right to the back of the net. Brad Marchand eventually netted the game winner for Canada and Stefan Legein scored an empty netter as well.

Drew Doughty had a very strong game defensively for Canada, assisting on Steven Stamkos’s goal, earning him the Canadian player of the game.

With winning today’s game, the national junior team now sets up a rematch of last year’s semi final against the United States.

The U.S. are still undefeated in this year’s tournament, and with players like James Van Riemsdyk, Colin Wilson, and Jordan Schroeder—the top three scorers in the IIHF tournament—it should be quite the battle in the long awaited matchup.

The Canadians were able to come out victorious over the Americans in last year’s matchup in a shootout with Chicago Blackhawk’s Jonathan Toews coming up with the winning goal. Team Canada then went on to win the gold medal.

Will we see a repeat in 2008?

WJHC Post Game: Canada Back-to-Back Shut-Out Wins

J Milton — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:07:14 -0500

Just 18 hours ago team Canada hit the ice for their first game in the World Junior Championship tournament. They started out strong, defeating the Czech Republic 3-0 with Jonathan Bernier earning the shutout and player of the game honors.

Team Canada also set a record in that win—it was their 19th straight World Junior victory dating back to the coaching days of Brent Sutter.

During their next game against Slovakia, Steve Mason didn’t see as much action as Bernier, but he stood just as strong between the pipes stopping all 22 shots for Team Canada recording the second shut out of the tournament between the two goaltenders. It now seems that these goaltenders are competing against each other for the number one position through the rest of the IIHF tournament.

Up to this point Team Canada has not let an even strength goal in 375 minutes, dating back to past World Junior tournaments.

In the game against the Czechs it was the story of the 17 year olds as Tavares had two goals and Steven Stamkos assisted on all three goals for Team Canada. In today’s match up against Slovakia it was Kyle Turris stealing the show helping his team to a 2-0 victory.

Turris is currently playing for the University of Wisconsin, but in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes selected him third overall. Gretzky certainly had reason to be proud of his future NHL star, as Kyle Turris had a huge game for Canada netting both goals on the powerplay past Slovakian goaltender Julius Hudacek. Turris was also named the Canadian player of the game.

At this point in the tournament one thing stands out like it has throughout past tournaments is the referring. Even though the IIHF has added a second referee to each international game, it doesn’t seem to have improved anything as we have seen many bogus calls being made against all teams. Slovakia was the team in this matchup that seemed to take the brunt of most of these bad calls.

Canada came into this tournament knowing it would be refereed differently from when they play with their respective teams back home. It seems like no matter how much head coach Craig Hartsburg drills into the juniors' heads, there are still way to many penalties being taken by Team Canada. Today they took a total of six penalties—three less then their previous game, but still could be less.

Team Canada will now have Thursday off but surely Hartsburg will be putting his national team through a strenuous practice as there are a few things they could be doing better. This break will also give both goaltenders some time to rest, as well as Brandon Sutter who seems to be suffering from an upper body injury but is still out on the ice shift after shift.

Team Canada’s next game will be against Sweden, a team that also beat Slovakia in their tournament opener. They will be playing their second game Friday against Denmark.

WJHC Post Game: Canada Shuts Out Czech Hosts

J Milton — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:12:42 -0500

With 16 players returning from the Russia/Canada Super Series tournament there was some question if this year’s junior national team could come out and dominate like they did against the Russians.

Many are completely sure that this will be no cake walk like it was last September for the powerful junior team, but after shutting out the host Czech Republic team 3-0, team Canada definitely carries some confidence as they continue further on into the tournament.

It was two 17-year-old juniors in their very first World Junior Tournament who had an outstanding game for Canada on Boxing Day. Jonathan Tavares and Steven Stamkos are already some pretty big names in the hockey world as they look towards careers in the NHL.

Stamkos is said to be the top guy chosen in the 2008 NHL entry draft and Tavares looks to go number one in the 2009 draft, but nobody could have scripted a better start for the youngsters in the World Junior tournament. Tavares currently sits second on his Oshawa General team in scoring but on the Team Canada roster he is first.

In today’s team Canada opener against the Czech host team Tavares came up huge netting two powerplay goals against Czech goaltender Michal Neuvirth, helping Canada to its first victory in the tournament.

Stamkos also had an outstanding game. At this point in the season he has 21 assists with the Sarnia Sting, third on team stats. On Boxing Day he came out huge assisting on all three of team Canada’s goals.

Another reason for Team Canada’s victory was goaltender Jonathan Bernier. He kicked off this year’s hockey season in London as the netminder for the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL’s London opener.

This game, Bernier looked down the barrel of 44 shots that the Czech team tested him with. The test was no match for him as he stopped them all and was awarded the Canadian player of the game. Even though Team Canada seemed to have all the answers to getting goals into the Czech Republic net, there are still many questions concerning the team and the amount of penalties taken.

The Canadians came out looking a little shaky in the first period—one might say they seemed almost nervous playing on the international stage. The Canadians took nine penalties the entire game, two of which came in the first three minutes. This is one thing Team Canada must work on. As as strong as the penalty kill looked on Wednesday, there are possibilities it might not stand that strong the entire tournament.

Team Canada will now try and get as much rest as they can because they don’t have much time until their next game. Thursday morning they will face off in their second game of the tournament taking on the Slovakians, a team that lost to Sweden earlier on Boxing Day.