If you haven’t been watching this year’s Junior Championship, you better have a good excuse. There’s been barnburners and massive blowouts but most importantly, the best players under 20 in the world are putting on a show.
Germany and Sweden were put at an early disadvantage due to COVID but it didn’t stop them from putting up a fighting effort in the preliminary round. Both teams advanced to the playoffs but ultimately lost in the first round. Germany lost to Russia 2-1 and Sweden fell to Finland 3-2.
Canada took care of the Czech Republic 3-0 and team USA beat Slovakia 5-2. Canada and Russia will face off at 4 pm today and USA will face Finland at 7:30. The winner of each game will face off in the gold medal game while both losers will battle for third place.
Germany entered this year’s World Junior Championship with low expectations but ended up finishing with a positive showing. As of now, they have three of the top eight points scorers. Trevor Zegras of the USA leads with 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists) with Canadian, Dylan Cozens, in a close second with 13 points (7 goals, 6 assists).
Zegras was drafted ninth overall by the Ducks in the 2019 draft and is still awaiting to play more than five games for their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls.
Cozens was selected seventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2019 draft as well. He’s been spending his time playing in the WHL.
Both Zegras and Cozens have been the top performers thus far in the tournament and look to be on a collision course for the gold medal. Zegras and the USA are looking for redemption after last year’s poor tournament performance while Cozens and Canada have their eyes on repeating at the World Junior Championship.
Other scoring leaders include:
- Tim Stutzle, Germany – 5 goals, 5 assists
- John-Jason Peterka, Germany – 4 goals, 6 assists
- Florian Elias, Germany – 4 goals, 5 assists
- Peyton Krebs, Canada – 3 goals, 5 assists
- Anton Lundell, Finland – 4 goals, 3 assists
- Connor McMichael, Canada – 3 goals, 4 assists
Top Goaltenders
- Devon Levi, Canada – 87 saves, 3 goals allowed, 2 shutouts
- Spencer Knight, USA – 73 saves, 6 goals allowed, 2 shutouts
- Simon Latkoczy, Slovakia – 94 saves, 8 goals allowed, 1 shutout
- Yaroslav Askarov, Russia – 101 saves, 9 goals allowed
- Kari Piiroinen, Finland – 89 saves, 8 goals allowed, 1 shutout
Let us know who you think will take home this year’s gold and who the tournament’s top performer will be. Keep up on your junior hockey news and check us out on Twitter @TJHP and @Nwinansw. We’ll see you next week.
