USA Holds On To Get Their 2022 World Juniors Started With A Huge Win Over Slovakia, Repeat Tour Still Activated
Who: USA vs Slovakia
What: 2022 World Juniors Preliminary Round Game #1
When: 9:30pm ET
Where: NHL Network (USA)/ TSN (Canada
Why: Because USA Hockey is Do or Die.
Here we go, ya beauties. First of all, Happy Boxing Day to all our Canadian pals up north. It's been a killer first day of the World Juniors so far and it gets capped off tonight with the defending champs trying to become the first team to repeat as back-to-back World Juniors champs since Canada did it in '09. Now that's not going to be an easy road to navigate. As we've got a chance to see today, Canada is absolutely loaded. Sweden is absolutely loaded. Russia has a few flaws (primarily in net), but they're going to be a tough group to go up against. And tonight against Slovakia is going to be a battle all night.
Slovakia may not have all the 1st round draft picks like some other teams in this tournament, but they've got a ton of young talent on that roster. Guys like Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky and Filip Mesar are all some of the best '04 birth year players in the world. Slovakia is young, they're talented, and that makes them dangerous since it's not like they have a ton of pressure heading into this tournament.
Meanwhile, all the pressure is on Team USA as the defending champs. I don't think this is a game where USA is able to get out to an early lead and just put Slovakia out of their misery. It's going to be a grind it out kind of game. The kind of game where you really need to rely on some of your more experienced players to keep the ship moving in the right direction even if they're not getting the results right away. Guys like Matty Beniers (SEA '21) are going to need to be difference makers all tournament. Jake Sanderson (OTT '20) and Luke Hughes (NJD '21) are going to need to consistently be noticeable out there on the blueline. Team USA doesn't have as many dynamic goal scorers as they've had in previous tournaments but this is still a roster that can go out there and win games the right way. Stay out of the box, make the most out of your chances, don't freak out if the goals aren't dropping right away. That's what it all comes down to.
So with all that being said, welcome back to the Live Blog. Buckle up and let's get this bitch going. Make sure to follow along on Twitter @JordieBarstool for live highlights and reactions. I'll be back on the blog between periods with the updates.
1st Period Updates: USA 2 - Slovakia 0
When Team USA came out for warmups wearing these cripsy blues, you knew they were going to be dangerous tonight.
But the opening few minutes were a little sketchy. A tough turnover right in front of their own net, and USA found themselves in some penalty trouble early. That'll definitely be something they desperately need to get control of before the Sweden game. But luckily for USA, Drew Commesso (CHI '20) looks like a total stud between the pipes. There was plenty of talk heading into the tournament on whether or not Commesso would be able to fill in the hole left by Spencer Knight on last year's gold medal winning team. But if we get a few more games like that period out of Commesso, then there's not a doubt.
And after USA killed off a couple of penalties of their own, Slovakia ended up getting into some penalty trouble themselves. Bad bad idea against this USA team. Because up first it was this silky smooth feed from Logan Cooley (2022 Eligible) to Matthew Knies (TOR '21) on the 5v3.
Such a confident play from Cooley. And perfect timing, too. Because that kept USA on the powerplay where Mackie Samoskevich (FLA '21) was able to have enough space to unload this vicious snipe to take the 2-goal lead.
Holy shit that shot was lethal. Full blown corner homicide.
Great first 20 minutes from Team USA. Slovakia has looked really solid so far aside from those few penalties. So the fact that USA has been able to control most of the play so far is a great sign this early in the tournament. 40 minutes to go.
2nd Period Updates: USA 3 - Slovakia 0
I think we all knew heading into this game that USA was going to be the better team overall. Faster, deeper, more skilled. But the great thing about this period was that USA just outworked Slovakia for pretty much the full 20 minutes. Winning the battles for loose pucks, defending the middle of the ice, working their asses off on the forecheck. They dominated pretty much every aspect of that period and the game could have been totally out of hand right now if it weren't for Simon Latkoczy between the pipes for Slovakia. He's been playing out of his mind tonight. Only issue is that he's been getting peppered all game and there's only so much one guy can handle.
So the only time cracked in this period was on this Landon Slaggert (CHI '20) greasy put away on the rebound.
Crash the net hard, get pucks on, and good things will happen. But yeah, USA is in control of this game and the only reason why it's not over already is all thanks to Latkoczy. So 20 more minutes to go. Need the boys to keep the pace going and make sure Slovakia doesn't even think about trying to come back.
3rd Period Updates: USA 3 - Slovakia 2
Yiiiikes. Not exactly the strongest 20 minutes to close out that game for Team USA. Pretty much everything they did to Slovakia in the 2nd period? Well Slovakia turned right around and did it to Team USA in the 3rd. They outworked them. They won the battles for loose pucks. They out-chanced them. And with just over a minute left, Slovakia turned this into a 1-goal game.
It just seemed like USA went into the locker room after the 2nd period already planning the postgame party. They thought they had that game wrapped up after 40 minutes. But hopefully this turns into an important lesson for this team that they're not good enough to not play a full 60 minutes in this tournament. Certainly one they'll need to learn before the 29th.
Also they learned another great lesson that Drew Commesso is a stud. Without this killer performance from him in net during that 3rd period, we're probably talking about overtime right now.
Either way, a win is a win. Especially in regulation. Especially in this group. Wins ain't gonna be easy to come by. Luckily USA has Switzerland up next. And then it's go time. Then it's Sweden and Russia. So a regulation win here to kick off the tournament puts them in a good spot. I'll see you stallions on Tuesday for the Swiss.