Posts Tagged ‘erik gudbranson’




Canada knocks off Switzerland in World Junior quarters

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Ryan Johansen (Wikimedia Commons)

Canada is now off to the semi-finals of the World Junior Hockey Championship.

On Sunday, Brayden Schenn recorded two assists as Canada defeated Switzerland 4-1 in their quarterfinal game in Buffalo.

The win now means Canada will play the United States in the semi-final this evening (5:30pm, TSN).

Expect Mark Visentin to get a second consecutive start. He looked awful on the one Swiss goal that was scored. He didn’t put his right pad up to the post, allowing for an opening for the puck to get by him. Then in the second period, Visentin had a complete mental lapse as he thought there was a Switzerland penalty and went off the ice, when in fact there was a Canadian one. Luckily Visentin’s lapse didn’t cost Canada a goal on that occasion.

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Posted in Amateur Sports, NHL |

Schennsational!

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Brayden Schenn (Wikimedia Commons)

Ok. It was only Norway, a team many believe should not have been at the World Junior Hockey Championships.

But Brayden Schenn of Saskatoon simply had one of those nights on Wednesday when everything he did was right. His four goal performance has only been matched twice by Team Canada in World Junior Hockey Championship history– 1983 by Mario Lemieux against Norway and 1999 by Simon Gagne against Kazakhstan.

Already down to 18 skaters because of injuries to Cody Eakin (hand), Calvin de Haan (lower body), Jaden Schwartz (knee) and a controversial suspension to Zack Kassian, Canada had to shorten its bench, but still came away with a commanding 10-1 blowout victory.

But, if you thought that a four goal performance by Schenn would be good enough for him to be named player of the game– you’re wrong. That honour went to defenceman Erik Gudbranson, who scored a pair of goals himself. The selection of Gudbranson over Schenn led TSN analyst Pierre McGuire to comment that the entire process for the player of the game award needed to be reviewed– a comment I agree with immensely.

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Posted in Amateur Sports |

Canada wins opener against Russia

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

Brayden Schenn, Wikimedia Commons

It wasn’t pretty. At times a little lackadaisical. But the bottom line is simple– a win is a win is a win.

There were positives as well as a few negatives in Canada’s 6-3 win over Russia at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Buffalo today.

First, let’s take a look at the positives. The experts said for Canada to have a good tournament, they needed a balanced scoring attack. Well, they got goals from Marcus Foligno, Ryan Ellis, Erik Gudbranson, Ryan Johansen, Brayden Schenn and Oiler prospect Curtis Hamilton.

Canada was also disciplined. They only took three penalties. Solid, when considering it was a Finn and a Swede refereeing. European officials tend to call more infractions than North Americans.

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Posted in Amateur Sports |