Flames at World Juniors: The kids are alright on Day One

The opening day of the 2017 World Junior Championship has come and gone, and it featured all five Calgary Flames prospects at the tournament in action.

It was an interesting day with two blow-out wins and a pretty interesting final contest between Canada and Russia. Here’s how it went down on Day One.

Oliver Kylngton was pretty good, lining up with Gabriel Carlsson on Sweden’s top pairing and at times resembling a Swedish T.J. Brodie by wearing #7 and skating around like the wind. The good and bad of Kylington was on display early; he blew some coverage jumping into the rush and had to scramble to get back, but then sprung a teammate for a breakaway chance. He settled in nicely after that, earning a secondary assist on the eventual game-winning goal by Joel Eriksson Ek. Of note: former Calgary Hitmen goalie Lasse Petersen was perhaps Denmark’s best player, which doesn’t say much.

Tyler Parsons got the start for the Americans and made 11 saves for the win. He gave up a goal, though the American defense was equally to blame as they stood around quite a bit early on. Adam Fox looked good, making smart plays and moving the puck rather nicely. He played primarily with Ryan Lindgren and had a secondary assist on the game-winning goal for the USA.

Monday’s final contest saw Dillon Dube of Canada face Pavel Karnaukhov of Russia. The Canadians were powered to a 5-3 victory and a great deal of their success was due to the work of their first line, consisting of Dube, Anthony Cirelli and Blake Speers. The trio scored Canada’s first goal (Dube assisted) and drew two penalties leading to a pair of Canadian power play goals. Dube’s line was also relied upon late with Russia pressing to eat up the clock and hem the opposing team in their zone. For his part, Karnaukhov wasn’t bad but he wasn’t a big factor in the game.

Here are the next games for the four teams with Flames prospects: