For the suspense, it will be necessary to go back to the World Junior Championship.
Posted at 7:07 p.m.
Updated at 7:43 p.m.
Canada reached Friday’s final in Edmonton without losing a game and having won them all by a margin of at least three goals. The latest casualty, the Czech Republic, fought valiantly but lost 5-2, not without scoring two goals in the third period to save the honour.
Since the start of the tournament, the Canadians have scored 38 goals and allowed only 12. They have maintained a fearsome success rate of 57% on the power play. By comparison, the Toronto Maple Leafs led the NHL last year with a 27% success rate…
Captain Mason McTavish, the Anaheim Ducks’ third overall pick in 2021, took the opportunity to add a goal to his record, his 15e tournament point in just six games. He has one game left, the final, to hope for at least three points and equal the Canadian record for points in a tournament set by Brayden Schenn in 2011 and Dale McCourt in 1977.
Connor Bedard, likely first choice in the 2023 draft, once again scored with his dry and accurate shot. The 17-year-old played a more subdued role in a third line, but he still manages to put in at least one big attacking play per game.
At the same age in 2004, Sidney Crosby had 5 points, including 2 goals, in six games as part of Team Canada’s fourth line. Bedard now has 8 points, including 4 goals, in six games. He could in principle participate in the next three World Junior Championships…
McTavish and Bedard have attracted attention since the start of the tournament, but Kent Johnson is less often mentioned, the second player with McTavish to have played games in the NHL.
For a second consecutive meeting, the trio he formed with Tyson Foerster and Logan Stankoven was the best. Johnson, the fifth overall pick in 2021, had three points against the Czech Republic. He also played in the shadow of Matt Beniers in Michigan, in the NCAA, last winter, despite having 37 points in 32 games.
Stankoven, a 2021 second-round pick of the Dallas Stars who rarely miss, now has 9 points, fourth in tournament scoring, and is also leading in faceoffs with a phenomenal success rate by 76%. His 5-foot-8 height got him shunned in the first round, but Dallas didn’t care. He has 104 points in 90 games this season in the Junior League West in Kamloops.
Among the Canadiens’ prospects, Joshua Roy scored the insurance goal in the third period on Friday, a seventh point for him in this tournament. Roy, returning with McTavish in the semi-finals, was the most-used Canadian player in that match, in any position, with 23 minutes.
Roy has been very effective defensively in this tournament, to the point of being sent into the fray with leads to protect in third, he stands out for his intelligence and attacking flair. This fifth-round choice of the CH in 2021 will have to continue to improve his speed if he wants to have a good career in the NHL. His progress has been interesting so far. His teammate Riley Kidney, Montreal’s second-round pick the same year, made only one appearance in the game.
On the Czech side, captain Jan Mysak, drafted in the second round in 2020, a year before Kidney and Roy, was once again the best of his team. He played in every situation and scored one of his team’s two goals, his fifth in the competition.