Day 3 of the World Junior Championships have come to a close with only 2 games being played on Sunday.
Denmark vs. Russia
Featuring a bunch of young men from Denmark and Russia.
Russia had no mercy on the win-less Denmark. They trounced them 7-0 with New York Rangers prospect Pavel Buchnevich being a selfish Russian (that’s the stereotype, right?) and hoarding 3 points all to himself. Russia has a regulation and overtime win in the tournament so far while Denmark has a regulation and overtime loss. Russia has scored 10 goals in 2 games while Denmark has a total of 3.Russia currently sits 2nd in Group B and Denmark is 4th out of 5 teams.
U.S.A vs. Germany
Featuring Dylan Larkin (2G, 1A, +3, 9 Shots on goal, 2PIM, 31.25% of Face Offs, Named Best Player for Team USA)
The United States shut out Germany 6-0 with good old Northern Michigan boy Brandon Halverson in net. The U.S. beat Germany in a fashion that almost made me feel a little sorry for them at times. Almost. Dylan Larkin was most excellent in the game and if the Germany goalie didn’t rob him a couple times, he easily could have had 2 more points. He was great on the PK, spending a lot of time in the Germany zone getting scoring chances and keeping the Germans from even getting out of their zone on their power play. Larkin’s skating abilities have been one of his highly touted assets but no one’s ever put it quite like this.
Dylan Larkin skates like angels making love.
— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) December 29, 2014
That should be in his scouting report.
There was one time in the 2nd period when Larkin was out there on the PK, skated the puck deep into the Germany zone and behind the net and also drew a penalty to make it 4 on 4. Larkin was absolutely robbed at least 3 times and still ended up with 2 goals, an assist, and player of the game for the US. The player of the game for Germany was their goalie Ilja Sheripov who kept this game from being a double digit blowout.
Larkin was great and it was a lot of fun watching him. The United States has only allowed a single goal against in 2 games while Germany hasn’t scored a goal yet. The U.S. outshot Germany 53-14, and the game was as lopsided as the shots indicate.
Update:Video Highlights
Here are the standings after day three.
| Preliminary Round Standings | ||||||||
| R | Team | GP | W | OTW | OTL | L | GF:GA | PTS |
| Group A | ||||||||
| 1 | CAN | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12:0 | 6 |
| 2 | USA | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7:1 | 5 |
| 3 | SVK | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2:9 | 3 |
| 4 | FIN | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2:4 | 1 |
| 5 | GER | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0:9 | 0 |
| Group B | ||||||||
| 1 | SWE | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10:3 | 6 |
| 2 | RUS | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10:2 | 5 |
| 3 | SUI | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5:9 | 3 |
| 4 | DEN | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3:8 | 1 |
| 5 | CZE | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4:10 | 0 |
Schedule for Monday December 29
Monday features all four of the Wings prospects teams in action. Dylan Larkin and the United States take on Slovakia, Axel Holmstrom and Christoffer Ehn take on Russia, and Joe Hicketts takes on Julius Vahatalo’s team (I have no idea if Vahatalo will play or not). TSN and NHL Network will both carry all four games so both Canadian and US viewers will have TV access to the games.
| Preliminary | B | Mon Dec 29 | Denmark | Czech Republic | 1:00 PM EST |
| Preliminary | A | Mon Dec 29 | Slovakia | United States | 4:00 PM EST |
| Preliminary | B | Mon Dec 29 | Russia | Sweden | 5:00 PM EST |
| Preliminary | A | Mon Dec 29 | Canada | Finland | 8:00 PM EST |
Here’s TSN’s full broadcast schedule, and here’s NHL.com has their full broadcast schedule as well.
