Saturday, January 5, 2019

IIHF U20 Championship 1/5/2019




This tournament will have to be remembered as the tournament of upsets. first Russia upset Canada
in group a to take the top spot.


Playoffs

The Knockout playoff rounds number 2 seed Canada was upset by the 3rd seeded Finland in OT.
If that wasn't enough Switzerland the 4th seed upset number 1 seed Sweden in the same bracket.

The other side of the bracket we saw the favorites advance. USA again beat Chech Republic 3-1 and
Russia disposed of Slovakia 8-3.

Seimi Finals

In the semi-finals #2 seed USA beat #1 and undefeated Russia 2-1. Russia is a fast skating, skilled
team that had a lot of possession. They like to curl back with the puck and creats an off balacned
defense and skate into the offensive zone. The USA plays one of the best team defensive games
compared to all the other nations. They are disceplin in their defensive assignments and this leads
to frustrations or turnovers to give the USA offensive opportunities. The USA held on to a gritty 2-1
win over Russia to advance to the finals.

Finland played #4 seed Switzerland and the Finns were just to good. They dominated the Swiss and
won with a convincing 6-1 win.

Finals

Both Finland and USA have 4 Championships apiece at this level. Canada has a whopping 17 while
Mighty Russia has 13. Sweden, surprisingly only has 2 Championships to their name.

This final will be a rematch of their group game in which the USA won the group game. However
there was a apparently a good goal scored by Finland to tie the game 1:1 but an early whiscle was
called. The goal was waved off. This changed the dynamic of the game and the USA went on to win
4-1. Finland will be looking to avenge their group game loss while the USA will look to further frustrate
the Finns and capitalize on opportunistic offense and continue to roll 4 equal lines.

Watch for Jack Hughes to show us why he will be the #1 pick in this years draft.

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