WJC Bronze Medal Winners

[PenKnight 23]

 

(529 Word Count)

 

We are back talking about the second year player now, Derek England. It appears that this Russian is on Team Asia and was a part of the World Juniors Tournament just recently. PenKnight just realized it and when he found the World Tournament Page he found out that Derek England ended up winning a Bronze Medal. Hey it isn't Gold or Silver but it sure as hell is a lot better than fourth place! Somehow PenKnight missed his tag for the WJC predictions or he just forgot about it. Egg on his face and he hates missing out on free TPE but lesson learned for next season. England finished the round robin round with 4 goals and 5 assists. He had a total of 9 points but was in the negative at minus 2 with the plus minus rating. 13 shots blocked and just over 28 minutes per game average. Most of his production came by way of the man advantage on the Power Play. It certainly could of been a worse showing for this rookie and his first year in the WJC Tournament.

 

In the Medal Rounds, Derek England got his chance to play two games. In the game against the United States he and the rest of his team was non existent and got rocked 6 to 1 as the United States went on to play for the Gold Medal. Team Asia did get a consolation via the Bronze Medal Game. They matched up against Team World and after the beat down they got from the UA not many fans or analysts thought they had a chance. After the first period though those ideas were put to rest. Team Asia came out firing on all cylinders and scored the first 3 goals of the game to go up three to nothing. Team World did try to get something going getting the next goal and within two goals down 3 to 1. 

 

In the second period it was more hard fought but the end result was the same as Team World was down 4 to 2 heading into the third period. The third period was much of the same as Team Asia had complete control. They ended up sealing the deal making it 5 to 2 and Derek England was able to finally get on the score sheet with an assist to the assist of the goal. Asia finished with all three stars of the game. They were: Viktor Kozlov, Valeri Morozov and Acyd Burn. Team Asia outshot Team World 45 to 32 but the second and third period is where they really turned up the shot total. They outshot Team World 36 to 13 in those two periods and played most of the game in the zone of Team World. Kozlov and Morozov had the two big games both scoring a goal and making two assists. They were able to erase the memory of the loss to the Red, White and Blue and just play this game fresh. When Team Asia were presented their medals someone played the Russian National Anthem by mistake. You could see Derek England and other fellow Russians grinning from ear to ear.