Russia dispatched the pesky German squad in the quarter finals at the Junior Hockey Championship dropping a narrow one goal 2-1 defeat to the Russians in a very entertaining low scoring game as they advanced to the semi-finals set for Monday at Rogers Place in 2021 World Junior Hockey Championships.
Germany which lost their first two games at this year’s Junior championship by wide edge 21 to 5 as they only dressed 14 players due to Covid-19 testing but got stronger as the tournament continued getting their full roster back in the line-up for their final two games in the round robin schedule pulling off back-to-back wins to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in 23 years.
In their quarter final match against the Russians in a tight defensive game and a great battle of the goalkeepers as Yaroslov Askarov between the pipes for Russia faced Florian Bugl of Germany and it was anyone’s game for the full 60 minutes as both keepers limited the shooters to a minimum of chances during the game.
Russia opened the scoring on a goal by Vladimir Ponomarev opening the scoring nine minutes into the game and that was the scoring in the first period as they went to the intermission.
The game winner by the Russians was scored by Dimitri Bashkirov at 8:27 of the middle stanza giving them a 2-0 lead going into the intermission.
Germany pressed in the final period making it a 2-1 contest as Elias Florian scored three and half minutes in giving his team some momentum with the game winding down looking for the game tying goal.
Germany polled Florian Bugl with 1:01 remaining but Ashkirov came up huge for Russia making keys saves to hold off a determined German squad allowing them to advance to the Semi-Finals Monday..
Russia out-shot Germany by a 27-19 margin with Russian “tender” Bashkirov stopping 18 of 19 shots for the victory.
The other end of the ice saw German goalie Florian Bugl play an exceptional stopping 25 of 27 shots he faced.
Next Up has Finland play host to Sweden, then Canada takes on Cze followed by the final game of the day with the US taking on SVK
Game stats for Russia vs Germany can be at IIHF Game Centre
Game Two – Finland vs Sweden
Finland scored a come from behind win over Sweden at the 2021 World Junior’s in the second game of the day after trailing 2-1 after the two periods of play.
Despite the fact that Sweden allowed Finland to score twice in the third period for the win in the late stages with a 3-2 victory.
that allows the Fins to advance to one the semi-finals on Monday.
Despite the fact that Sweden started this loss was the third straight for team Sweden after impressive early opening games of the tournament, running their winning streak to 54 games.
Finland finished second to Canada in Group A in the round robin schedule this was a huge morale boost knocking off Sweden to advance having nine NHL draft picks in the line-up.
Sweden managed to get first period goals by Raymond and Soderblom then shut the door that saw Finish Goalkeeper Kari Pllroinen failed to let Team Sweden score again giving his team the comeback win.
They cut the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Nikkanen at 25:32 of the second followed by the game tying goal from Lundell at 11:04 in the third with many expecting O/T.
To the surprise of many this was followed by the game winner with 25 seconds left in regulation time that sealed the 3-2 win holding off a late rally by Sweden.
Finland peppered Swedish goalie Hugo Alnefelt with 28 shots forcing him to make 28 stops, while Finish tender Kari Pllroinen kicked out 23 of 25 shots for the victory.
