World Junior Hockey Championships have familiar faces in semifinals

By STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

8 years ago

Canada head coach Dominique Ducharme talks with reporters at the world junior ice hockey championships, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 in Montreal. Canada will face Sweden in the semifinals on Wednesday. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press via AP)

USA’s Luke Kunin (9) celebrates his goal past Switzerland goaltender Joren van Pottelberghe (30) during the first period of a quarterfinal hockey game at the world junior championship in Toronto, Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

MONTREAL — Roll call was taken Tuesday at the World Junior Hockey Championships and everyone who was supposed to be there for the semifinals.

Canada? Present.

Sweden? Here.

USA? Yo.

Russia? Da.

Much like a typical NCAA Final Four at which you would expect to see Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina, there are no surprises at the World Juniors. The best four teams are still playing, and the matchups Wednesday at the Bell Centre are compelling.

Sweden, which has the most experienced roster and has rolled its way unscathed into the semifinals, faces Canada, the host nation.

The Americans, who also are perfect, survived Monday’s quarterfinal 3-2 against a feisty Switzerland squad led by Nico Hischier, who had both Swiss goals and will be a high lottery pick come June 23 at the NHL Entry Draft. Team USA will face Russia in the other semifinal.

“We just didn’t have that urgency we came to the rink with in the preliminary round,” USA coach Bob Motzko said. “Switzerland showed a lot of heart and courage — things our team had in our first four games — and we have to tip our hat to them for giving us a real hard time. We have tremendous leaders in this room, and we know we’ve got to get back to our style of hockey.”

Colin White said winning a game like Monday’s can help provide a dose of reality.

“They outplayed us, but good teams find a way to win, and we did that,” White said. “We knew we hadn’t really faced adversity yet in this tournament, so to go through that, it was a big wake-up call.”

The Russians will be looking to avenge their 3-2 loss to the U.S. on Dec. 29 in Toronto during round-robin play. They have a hot goalie in Ilya Samsonov, who has recorded back-to-back shutouts and played well in the loss to the Americans.

Russia also has history on its side. Last year in Helsinki, the Russians defeated Team USA 2-1 in the semifinals, relegating the Americans to bronze medal status. The U.S. is 4-8 in semifinal games and 0-3 against Russia.

The Swedes know they are not going to be welcome guests in the 21,273-seat Bell Centre. But they are confident they have the talent to quiet Canada’s boisterous fans.

“We’ve proven we can play, and we just have to go out and do what we’ve been doing,” said Alex Nylander, the tournament’s leading scorer with 11 points. “It’s going to be a fun atmosphere to play in.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.