Flames at the World Juniors Day Six: Jostling for Position

After having zero players in action at Day Five of the 2017 World Junior Championship, all five Calgary Flames prospects played at Day Six. While none of them were in situations where medal round qualification was on the line, all of the games had some stakes in terms of determining match-ups.

Aside from Canada, every team featuring Flames prospects won.

It was a meaningless game for Sweden, which had already sewn up first place in Group A (while the Czechs were trying to determine seeding). Nonetheless, the Swedes never trailed en route to a one-sided 5-2 victory. Heck, that score is a bit wonky, as the Swedes got a bit casual in the third period and the Czechs scored twice to make things slightly more respectable.

Oliver Kylington was a big factor early on. He made a nice pass to start the opening rush for Sweden that led to their first goal. He was part of some smooth puck movement on Sweden’s power play that led to a goal that made it 2-0 early. He assisted on a late goal that made it 5-0 and took a minor penalty in the third that didn’t result in any Czech goals.

All-in-all, Kylijngton played 19:39 (third among Swedish players) and was +1 with an assist and a penalty.

The Americans have been alternating goalies during the round robin and so Leafs prospect Joseph Woll started this big clash with Tyler Parsons as his back-up. (Parsons got to play against Russia.)

Despite having to kill off two five-on-three man advantages for Canada – and losing Luke Kunin for the back half of the game – the Americans grinded out a 3-1 victory over Canada. Adam Fox had a minor penalty (taken against Dillon Dube) but otherwise played well, racking up 11:34 of ice-time (fifth of his team’s seven blueliners). His team may have lost a heart-breaker, but Dube played well in his usual energy role aongside Blake Speers and Anthony Cirelli. He played 12:58, eighth among Canada’s 12 dressed forwards.

The Russians avoided playing the white-hot Swedes in the quarterfinals by way of a low-scoring win over Slovakia. Pavel Karnkaukhov had an assist on the Russia’s first goal, scored on the power play. Russia out-shot the Slovaks 30-15 and generally didn’t give them very much overall.

Karnaukhov played 15:10 overall and had a shot on goal.

Quarterfinals begin on Monday and all four teams with Flames representation have advanced to that round! Finland, who didn’t take Eetu Tuulola (he’s 18 so he’ll have another chance next year), is battling Latvia in the relegation round.

Denmark vs. Russia, 11 a.m. MT
Sweden vs. Slovakia, 1:30 p.m. MT
United States vs. Switzerland, 3:30 p.m. MT
Canada vs. Czech Republic, 6 p.m. MT

For the curious, the medal round will unfold like this:

So get set for a wild final few days of this tournament.