VSN Presents: S76 WJHC Recap

[Ledge 1,131]

 

What’s up VHL! The World Juniors is officially finished, and each team has played their hearts out in pursuit of that coveted gold medal. It’s been a wild ride, and there were some crazy and unexpected outcomes during the tournament ! So here we go, onto the S76 WJHC Recap.

 

            With a bang to start the tournament, Team Asia let their presence be known as they bested Canada in a 3-game sweep, and continued to ride their massive hype wave as they steamrolled through the opposition on the way to clinching the top seed. Team Europe, on the other hand, took their time as they started off sleepy and absorbed some tough losses. However, in their final few games, they turned it on to go 4-0 in their last 4 to jump up the standings. The defending champs Team World carried that winning attitude to start the tourney, going 4-1 to begin with but falling off a cliff in their closing matchups. Going into the WJC, Team USA’s squad looked worthy of a championship. Apparently, looks can be deceiving as they couldn’t string together wins and ended up falling short of .500 hockey. Finally, we have Team Canada, who, in contrast to the real life success of the team, usually falls short in the VHL. These Canadians never really found their footing, with a slow start, and although they picked up their game a little down the stretch, they still couldn’t manage to lift themselves from last place.

       Onto the playoffs. In the qualifier, Canada bested USA in a rematch of the bronze medal game last season, where the outcome remained the same. The Canadians moved on to face Asia, who gave them a right spanking to send them back to the third place game. In the other semi final contest, Europe surprised everyone by gutting World in a sweet revenge game from some of the returning, silver-bearing Europeans. Finally, in the gold medal game, Europe continued their playoff sublimity by handing Asia an astounding loss to take home the hardware.

Round Robin

 

Team Asia

GM: KaleebTheMighty

Record: 9-0-1

Place= 1st

 

Talk about a Cinderella story. Team Asia, who has finished last in every single WJC tournament since its inception, goes without losing a game in regulation to take the top seed in the round robin. A big part of it has been the dynamic duo of Javad Kamkar and Frank Funk Jr., who finished 1-2 in round robin scoring. With 19 and 18 points respectively, it’s fair to say that Asia has some serious firepower in their roster. Goaltender Trent Gibson, who had a fantastic season with Houston and continues to backstop Asia wonderfully, has been the backbone of the team. 

 

Team Europe

GM: PatrikLaine

Record: 5-4-1

Place: 2nd

 

In recent seasons, Team Europe has been arguably the most successful team in the WJC. Two seasons ago, they captured gold, and last season, silver. While the giant rising from the rubble that is Team Asia cleaned up the competition for the most part, Europe still managed to do fairly well in their share of games. Unlike some of their competitors, Europe spread out the scoring pretty well. Gunnar Odinsson and 1st overall pick Paul Atreides led the way with 17 points apiece, and Duncan Idaho and defenceman Kristof Welch also chipped in with 16 points each. Aksu Maronen, returning for his second WJC tourney, also kept the Europeans in a lot of close games. With the hunger for yet another medal as their motivation, there isn’t much in the way of this squad.

 

Team World

GM: Bobo

Record: 4-6-0

Place: 3rd

 

While Team World didn’t have a lot of returnees from last season’s champions, they picked up some hot underagers. Reylynn Reinhart stunned the hockey world with her 5 goal game early in the tournament, and remained near the top of the scoring leaderboard for the entirety of her games. Fellow hotshot defenceman Zeedayno Chara also impressed with 18 points, same as Reinhart. One of the sole returnees for Team World, Lenny Sanderson showed his experience playing against his own age with 16 points as well. Barry Taffe also showed promise, posting a .905 save percentage and picking up a shutout. With back to back gold medals on the line, World will have to raise their game if they want to take home the championship.

 

Team USA

GM: Hex Universe

Record: 4-5-1

Place: 4th

 

While the Americans usually dominate the WJC in terms of trash talking and hyping, they find themselves coming up empty in the games itself in the past couple tournaments. They walked into the S77 tournament with some nasty firepower up front, but fell flat in the round robin. With a couple wins here and there, inconsistency sunk their ship. In addition to that, some of their superstars like Red Lite and Hex Rose had disappointing performances. But their depth carried out as Tee Pee E ll got 12 points and Carson Walkers pounded out 10 with 5 goals. Goaltender Michael Olson was their saving grace, putting up a .912 save percentage despite his team’s lackluster defense. However, the Americans can still hold on to the glimmer of hope that Lite and/or Rose steps up in the elimination games to carry them to victory.

 

Team Canada

GM: Domg5

Record: 3-5-2

Place: 5th

 

Sadly, the Canadians continued their trend of, well, sucking in the S77 round robin. They started off the tourney by losing 6 straight games, then had a string of decent luck near the end of their matchups. Phoenix Dawson and Kevin Wu both put up memorable showings, and goalie Tater Tot put up pretty darn good stats considering the circumstances. In the end, looking at last season’s WJC, Canada was down in the dumps before catching fire in the playoffs and securing a medal. Team Canada is down but not out. Not by a long shot.

 

Playoffs
 

Now, it’s playoff time. The seeds have been seeded, and there’s no more safety blanket for any team. It’s do or die, and only the strong will survive.

 

Quarter Finals

Canada vs USA

 

With perennial quarter finalist Asia securing the first seed, Canada and USA are forced to battle it out for the privilege to play them in the semis. Both Canada and USA had underwhelming round robins, so this game is important to the credibility of each country.

A mere 2 minutes into the game, Jivere Zolnek of USA moved it to Breeze Ladrian , who rushed up the ice and feathered it to Walkers, who slapped it past ClapbombsRUs to put USA up 1-0. The rest of the period was relatively quiet, with Canada outshooting USA 14-12. Once again, only 4 minutes into the frame, USA stole the puck, had a passing bonanza involving 4 players, with John Callahan Jr. finishing it off with a booming clapper to give the Americans an insurance goal. At this point, it was looking gloomy for the boys from the North. But it was time for a good ol’ turning point. With Breeze Ladrian boxed for interference, Team Canada pressed relentlessly until Eddie Dams ‘broke the dam’ with a sneaky shot under the blocker of Olson. 

In an almost identical situation 7 minutes later, with Ladrian once again in the box for interference, it was Victor Foles who got the puck past Olson to tie the game up.

Then, with less than a minute remaining in the period, Magnus Verlander ripped a shot right after a faceoff to give USA back the lead.

In the third period, history repeated itself yet again. Joseph Sharkton busted his butt, picked up a loose puck, and stuffed it home to tie it up yet again, 3-3. The rest of the period went, for the most part, quietly.

IT’S OOOOOOOOVERTIME! Canada vs USA in overtime! Right away, Canada exerted their presence with a barrage of shots, which Olson superbly turned away until a fateful moment about ten minutes into overtime. Kevin Wu started it all with a pass pick, which led to the Canadians once again unleashing a bombardment of shots on Olson, with Wu himself breaking the bank with a slick wrister that made a sweet ‘ding’ sound when it ricocheted against the post and in. Canada was moving on!

 

Semi Finals

Asia vs Canada

Europe vs World

 

In the first game of the semi finals, the hottest team of the round robin takes on the underdog who squeaked into this game. Asia comes into this contest having not yet lost a game in regulation, and it would sure be a surprise to most if they dropped this one. 

Early in the game, Asia has Canada pinned in their zone with their stellar offense. Jon Strider picked up a wild shot that went wide and tapped it in to make it 1-0. Two minutes later, Evgeni Shevkov increased the lead with a pinpoint snipe after a blocked shot. Then, in a span of less than a minute, Hulk Hogan Jr. and Brendan Telker each pot one as Canada catapults themselves back into the game. But it would prove to be futile as Asia would seize control of the play from then on.

In the middle of the second, after some back and forth, Strider once again dented the scoresheet with a quick wrister off the faceoff to make it 3-2 for Asia. With seconds left in the frame, Nathan Steele poked the puck through Tater Tot of Canada to give Asia an insurance goal.

In the third, Maksym Jankowski and Strider once again both added markers for Asia within two minutes of each other, completing the 6-2 routing of the Canadians. It was a marquee game for Asia, the first playoff game won by their WJC team. But immediately after the end of the game, they had to focus on their next target milestone: the gold medal.

 

In the second game of the semi finals, it is a rematch from last year’s gold medal game; Europe against World. There is a heated rivalry between these two teams, and tons of history. The tensions will run high.

Less than two minutes into the game, the dam is broken. Phil The Rock Johnson powers into the World zone with purpose, releasing a wicked snapshot that finds mesh over the glove of goaltender Taffe. That goal set the pace for the game. After pressure and constant shots from the Europeans, they struck again, with Atreides collecting a wily shot from Idaho and tucking it in the corner of the net. But Europe wasn’t done yet, oh no. With Chara serving time for roughing, that iconic trio of Atreides-Idaho-Odinsson doing their thing, with Idaho this time picking up an Odinsson slapshot that careened wide and roofing it beside Taffe. Three minutes later, Battre Sandstrom unleashed a rocket from the point that Taffe didn’t even see due to some picture perfect screening by Idaho. When the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the first period, it was 4-0 in favour of the Europeans.

250 seconds into the second period, Odinsson retrieved a dump in for a line change by World, rushed it the length of the ice, only to fire a snapshot off the crossbar. He hustled through 2 World players, grabbed the puck down onto his tape, and took a whack at it as he was felled. It flipped up and over Taffe and into the net. 5-0, Europe. The rest of the period continued in the tilted rink fashion as Europe outshot World 23-2.

Around twelve minutes into the third, after a sensational bunch of stops by Taffe, team

World finally yanked its head out of the ground as Jim Allen snuck the puck underneath the blocker of Maronen to make it 5-1. At this point in the game, there was nearly no hope left for World, and their fate was sealed when Robin Galante Nilsson batted the puck out of the air and into the net merely two minutes after Allen’s marker. Bobo’s squad became desperate as shot after shot were turned away by Maronen, blocked by an astute defenceman, or missing the cage entirely until Peter Louis ll ripped a slapshot through the mes in front of Maronen’s crease to finish off the game at a 6-2 peak. It was a glorious day for European fans and a horrendous one for global ones.

 

Gold Medal Game

Asia vs Europe

 

It all comes down to this, folks. The big kahuna. This is for all the marbles, especially the golden ones. It’s the gold medal game, and there is a lot on the line. Will Asia break yet another record in an absolutely historic WJC run? Or will Europe secure their spot as the winningest WJC team ever?

Aksu Maronen in net for Europe. Trent Gibson in net for Asia. Everything on the line. It’s go time! Shevkov wins the faceoff against Atreides, and the game has begun. 

The play started halfway through the first. Tom Eagles picked up the puck in his own end, and rushed it up the ice only to have his wrister off the wing gloved by Gibson. But now Europe had Asia trapped in their own zone. It was time for the Europeans’ deadly top line to go to work. For forty seconds, Asia was barricaded inside its own end as Europe relentlessly pummeled Gibson with shots. He turned them all away magnificently until Gunnar Odinsson himself snagged the puck off the boards, crept into the slot, and fired a quick snapper between the legs of Trent Gibson. After that fateful moment in time, Europe seized control of the contest and refused to let go. They struck again before the period’s close when Duncan Idaho deflected an Odinsson shot that bounced around the posts before dribbling in. The shots were 20-3 in favour of Europe.

The second period was more of the same. Gibson was once again extremely busy in the crease, turning away shot after shot after shot. At 4:12 into the period, Odinsson etched his name another time on the scoresheet after collecting his own rebound and wrapping it around Gibson for the goal. After Asia tested Maronen for a brief time, Idaho was back at it with a beauty of a bar down slapshot. Following that, time does as time does, which is repeat itself. Guess who, once again, picked up his own rebound and deposited it behind Gibson? Gunnar Odinsson, of course, who completed the gold medal hat trick that would lock him in as tournament MVP. Following the goal, it was a long slog for both teams through the final part of the game. Logan Moore of Asia managed to beat Maronen early in the third, but it was clear from the start which team had come to play. Europe had won the gold medal.

 

 

That wraps up the S76 WJCH Recap presented by VSN! I hope y'all enjoyed reading it, and we'll see you at next season's World Juniors!

 

 

 

Players mentioned: 

 

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[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

Fantastic recap! Super proud of all my Europe boys, let's hope we can do it again when the WC rolls around

[KaleebtheMighty 1,539]

Great recap of the tournament!! Loved your commentary on some of the games, really well done!

[BOOM 8,817]

Sweet recap Ledge. Proud of Team Europe. 

[Dom 1,445]

Great recap @Ledge_and_Dairy! 

[Laine 1,361]

Amazing recap @Ledge_and_Dairy!

[Ledge 1,131]

Second week 'claimage' 

[BOOM 8,817]

4 hours ago, Ledge_and_Dairy said:

Second week 'claimage' 

 

I read this again, just to see how good I was. 

 

 

[Spence King 387]

On 3/23/2021 at 11:48 PM, Ledge_and_Dairy said:

Team Asia, who has finished last in every single WJC tournament since its inception

I won a Silver medal when I was GM of Asia !! Don't forget they have a Silver in the history books