Canucks Daily: USA Shocked!, Other Prospects Move On

Vancouver Canucks prospects and local BC players who we’ve been following saw mixed results at the World Junior Championship quarterfinals on Wednesday in Edmonton. The big shocker, defending champion Team USA got bounced by Czechia 4-2 in the late game.

The Czech Republic played a disciplined defensive game and goalie Tomas Suchanek made 28 saves while the Americans fell behind during a flat second period and never recovered. The last time the Czechs beat the Americans, Petr Mrazek was in net eleven years ago during the preliminary round of the 2012 championship, also in a game played in Edmonton.

Vancouver Canucks 2020 5th-round draft pick, defenceman Jacob Truscott played a little more than 12-minutes and had one shot on goal in the losing effort. There were only 739 spectators on hand for the game.

The Czechs will play the Canadians in one semi-final on Friday. The Canadians advanced with a 6-3 win over Switzerland.

Logan Stankoven from Kamloops was the big scorer in this one, picking up two goals and an assist. Goaltender Dylan Garand, a Victoria native, who played junior hockey with Stankoven in Kamloops with the Blazers, earned the victory in net while making 23 stops.

Kent Johnson from Port Moody had a tough day at the dot, losing five of six face-off chances, but otherwise contributed nicely. The 5th-overall pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets last summer had an assist, five shots on goal, and finished a plus-2.

North Vancouver’s Connor Bedard had a quiet game statistically with one shot-on-goal in 17:53 of ice time. His one near tally squeaked through the Swiss netminder in the 3rd period, only to have the puck cleared from the goal line by a defender.

2022 Canucks 1st-round NHL Draft pick Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Team Sweden edged Latvia 2-1 in the 2nd game of the day to move on to the semi-finals against Finland. Lekkerimaki finished with a first period shot on goal and 12:05 of total ice time for the game.

In the earlier game, Vancouver Canucks 2020 3rd-round draft selection Joni Jurmo and Team Finland handled Germany 5-2 to advance. The left shot defenceman also had a first period shot on goal and finished plus-1 in 17:09 of TOI.

Next Groups Set

With the postponed 2022 WJC being played out in August, it means we only have to wait four months before we do it all over again with the 2023 World Junior Championships in the Maritimes starting in December. On Wednesday, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) set the groups.

Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Germany and Austria will compete in Group A in Halifax while the United States, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Latvia will form Group B and play at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Lady’s Shoot-out Success

It was a double-whammy for Team Canada’s women’s program on Wednesday in Calgary. Canada’s Under-18 National Women’s Team beat the United States 6-5 following a seven-round shoot-out. In the game that followed, Canada’s National Women’s Development Team also used a shoot-out to beat the USA 4-3.

Jordan Baxter from New Westminster and Morgan Jackson from Courtenay both chipped in an assist in the early game. Both series of games continue on Thursday.