No big surprises on WJC day 1

26 Dec 2015 | Fredrik Pålsson

Wins for Russia, Sweden, Finland and USA when the World Juniors started in Helsinki, Finland.

The first game of the 2016 IIHF World U20 Championship was a close game in Group B between Russia and the Czech Republic. Michael Spacek gave the Czechs the lead in the second period. That goal came just over one minute after the Spacek had a goal disallowed. And going into the third period the Czechs had the advantage both in score in momentum.

But the Russians came out and made a strong third period and Artur Lauta tied the game 1-1, a goal that took the game to overtime. The overtime saw no goals and the game went to a shootout. Spacek never got the chance to repeat his success from regular time and instead Maxim Lazarev scored the game winner for Russia while Alexander Georgiev saved all the Czech attempts.

In the other game of group B the hosts beat Belarus 6-0. Finland were slow started in scoring but dominated the entire game outshooting Belarus 37-10. When Jesse Puljujärvi opened the scoring at 37:11 after coming from behind and beating Ivan Kulbakov with a nice deke the pressure on the home team finally released. In the third period Finland stromed to victory with five unanswered goals to seal the 6-0 win. Puljujärvi added another goal and assist and was one of the leading Finns.

In group A Sweden started the tournament with a farily easy win against Switzerland 8-3. But the win was expensive for Sweden, the Swiss team played hard and some what ugly at times and had a total of 60 penalty minutes. Two of Sweden's best players William Nylander and Adrian Kempe left the game with injuries. Nylander after a blindside checking to the head by Chris Egli and Kempe after a check in the back. Nylander's future in the tournament is unsure while Kempe seems fairly ok. Egli probably has a suspension to await. Before Nylander left the game he opened the scoring early. After Nylander left the game, Dmytro Timashov was one of the leading Swedes with two goals. William Nylander's younger brother Alexander had three assists in the game.

The second game of group A was the game of the giants USA and Canada. It was a very close game, a stupid spearing penalty by Alex Debrincat could have cost USA the game but Canada failed to use the five minute power play. And even if Matt Barzal gave Canada the lead shortly afterwards USA came back and turned around to 2-1 after goals by Colin White and Zach Werenski.

Canada's star Dylan Strome tied the when he fired him a high shot on power play and it looked like the game would go to overtime. But with 3:18 to go Louis Belpedio scored with a shot from long range and less then a minute later the projected 2016 NHL top draft pick Auston Matthews sealed the win when he got his stick to a loose puck to put in behind McDonald in Canada's net. A 4-2 win for USA that could be crucial in the seedings for the second round.