World juniors: Canada Takes the Win Against the Swiss – Heads to the Semis

Team Canada celebrated their 8-2 World Junior win over Team Switzerland. Team Canada’s Brett Howden got action underway with a goal in the first period, and this set the stage for a dismal 60 minutes of play for the Swiss.

Switzerland’s Coach, Christian Wohlwend, had commented before the game that he expected Canada would dominate the Swiss, which drew shock from Canada’s Dillion Dube. Yet, it turns out Wohlwend was on the mark with his prediction.

Canada’s Drake Batherson saw two goals in Tuesday’s game in Buffalo. Batherson played well throughout the game. Batherson was quick to see teammate Jordan Kyrou heading to the bench after having is stick broken. Realizing both were right-handed, Batherson passed his stick to Kyrou, who returned to the ice, accepted a pass sent his way by teammate Sam Steel and put the puck behind the crease to give Canada a 5-o lead.

After scoring, Kyrou motioned towards the stick and shouted towards Batherson.

Batherson stated, “He said he kind of mishandled it a little bit, mine’s a totally different curve than his, I think he likes it now that he scored with it so maybe I’ll give him some more sticks.”

The show of force by Team Canada saw Drake Batherson scoring only minutes before the goal by Jordan Kyrou. Batherson was pleased with the two points he earned but with a chuckle, said he felt a third was in order

“Kyrou pointed at me from the ice but I thought I could’ve gotten the third assist or something,”

Canada will now face semi-final action against the Czech Republic on Thursday. The Czech Republic beat Finland 4-3 to advance to the semi-finals earlier in the day on Tuesday. Canada has come out ahead of the Czech’s in exhibition play with a 9-0 win on December 20th. While that will draw the attention of top rated bookmakers and those interested in placing bets on Thursday’s game, in defence of the Czech’s, they played without their entire roaster and therefore were not at their best.

Team Captain Dillion Dube said,

“We played them there but haven’t seen them since and they’ve added some really good players. It’s going to be a really fast game and we’re looking forward to the challenge.

Three of Czech’s best scorers, Libor Hajek (1 goal, 6 assists), Filip Zadina (5 goals, 1 assist) and Martin Necas (3 goals, 6 assists) are proven effective for the team. For Canada, Jordon Kyrou is their strongest asset with 5 goals and 2 assists. Other notables include Brett Howden and Cale Makar, each with 3 goals and 3 assists.

Carter Hart, Canada’s Goaltender, blocked twelve shots and enjoyed cheers from the crowd during the 1st intermission after he outsmarted Matteo Ritz, Switzerland’s goaltender. Hart is known for being superstitious towards being the player last to exit the ice. After getting a bit tired of Ritz not leaving the ice, Hart left and waited inside the tunnel until Ritz left the ice only to shoot back onto the ice to the crowd’s delight.

Hart commented,

“I was getting tired of waiting so I hopped off and then once I got off, he got off, so I quickly went back out, did a little loop, and came in, the loop counts because I was still last off.”