The quarterfinals of the Junior Ice Hockey World Championships have been played in Gothenburg. One match was a clear loss, when the USA beat Latvia 7–2.
For Latvia, the place in the playoffs was already a top performance. It came apart when the team managed to beat Germany in the A group. Germany was destined for the qualifying series, even though it beat Finland.
However, as expected, the winner of group B, the USA, was too tough for Latvia. New York Rangers reservation Gabe Perreault forged powers 2+1 and reserve of New Jersey Devils, defender Seamus Casey preyed on three input surfaces.
of the USA Cutter Cauthier leads the championship points market with 1+9. The goal exchange is led by the USA with six hits Gavin Brindley.
The USA is practically the only country in these games that hasn’t had a major setback on its way to the medal games.
All three other quarter-finals were true thrillers.
Finland defeated Slovakia 4–3 in a thrilling and colorful match, captain Jere Lassilan with an overtime goal.
Read more: Comment: The Young Lions’ phenomenal captain did it again
Switzerland tormented the home team
Extra time was also needed in Tuesday’s last quarter-final, the meeting between Sweden and Switzerland.
Otto Stenberg and Jonathan Lekkerimäki took Sweden, who played in front of their home crowd as a big favorite in the opening set, to a 2–0 lead.
Jan Hornecker narrowed in the second set. As the third set approaches its halfway mark Nick to Me smoothed out. Sweden’s nervousness was visible, for example, in the ice cream taken shortly after the equalizing goal, when there were too many players on the field.
Then Switzerland’s goal scorer Meile took the ice with 1:50 left in the actual game time, but Switzerland made it to overtime. That was already a giant bang.
Sweden won the initial group A, while Switzerland was the fourth in group B. In the opening group, Switzerland only beat Norway and lost, for example, to the USA 3–11.
In overtime, it was 3-on-3 with the wind going head-to-head. After extra time had been played on 4.28 Rodwin Dionicio fell into the freezing cold.
18 year old defender Axel Sandin-Pellikka got out of the torment of the Gothenburg hall with superior strength. Sweden to the semi-finals with a 3–2 win.
The Swiss coaching was still hot even after the goal, because it thought Dionicio’s suspension was a very light sentence.
Czech sensation
The Czech Republic took their sensation to the finish when they beat Canada 3-2. Jakub Stancl scored the winning goal 11 seconds before the final buzzer.
In the winning goal, the puck bounced off Canada Oliver Bonkin through to the network. After the match, the Canadians had to console Bonki, who sold his country.
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The Czech Republic, which finished third in the initial group, only defeated Canada for the first time in the playoffs of the under-20 World Cup tournament.
In the last 26 years, Canada has been left out of the medal games only twice. Both times, 2016 and 2019, the defeat was caused by Finland, which then progressed to the World Cup gold.
– This feels like the end of the world. This was an incredible opportunity for all of us. You never know if you’ll get another chance to represent your country at international games again, Canada’s captain Fraser Minten wailed on TSN’s broadcast.
Canada’s Matthew Poitras admitted that he was getting too excited.
– It feels like I let some of these guys down. Like I betrayed my country.
In the World Cup final a year ago, Canada beat the Czech Republic 3–2 in overtime.
– Revenge, beamed the Czech captain Jiri Kulich According to the CBC.
This is how the semi-finals are played
The semifinal pairs are formed in such a way that the best-ranked team meets the lowest-ranked team. The USA was the best in the initial groups, when it collected 11 points in four matches.
The USA will thus face Finland, which collected five points in the initial group.
Sweden won Finland’s first group with 10 points. In the semi-finals, Sweden will face the Czech Republic, which captured seven points in the first group.
The semi-finals will be played on Thursday. Sweden-Czech Republic starts at 16:00 Finnish time. USA-Finland starts at 20:30.
The final will be played on Friday from 20:30. As the tournament host, Sweden will have a longer recovery time for the final, if it advances there.