It was a light schedule for the U18s on day three with Canada playing Latvia and Finland taking on the Czech Republic. In predictable fashion, Canada handled its business beating the Latvian team 4-2 but was it ever close as the Canadians avoid the scare. The Finns and Czechs played another back and forth game as Group B, the ‘Group of Death’, continues to be stressful for all involved!
Canada 4-2 Latvia
Shortly before puck drop, the Canadian team announced that they would be without captain Shane Wright and defender Corson Ceulemans for non-COVID-related precautionary reasons. With a game against an undermanned Latvian squad, the Canadians should have had no issues. Well, I did say
Well, this tournament certainly hasn’t disappointed! Day two was filled with action and unfortunately, it was a bit one-sided on a couple of occasions. Belarus showed that they aren’t going to be pushed around and put a thumping on the Swiss. Group A’s other game featured another blowout as Canada took a beating to the Swedes potting a dozen goals. Group B was a bit tighter as the Russian went from coming back against the Americans to blowing a lead against the Finns less than 24 hours later. The U.S. club got a scare from the Germans who just never seemed to stay down, right to the final whistle.
The best U18 players of Finland (excluded Liiga players) gathered to play two intrasquad games in Vierumäki at the start of February and it was
really interesting. Both of the games needed overtime and the first one even went to a shootout. I wanted to share my thoughts on the camp’s players with our readers.
Best defenders of the camp in my books were Viljami Juusola (2021), Aleksi Heimosalmi (2021), Jimi Suomi (2021), Otto Salin (2022) and Kasper Kulonummi (2022).
Juusola (LDH) was already really good in U20 SM-sarja in autumn but didn’t really get the role he wanted in Kärpät so he left to Sweden. Now, he showed some good mobility, on-puck skills, and his specialty, precise passing game. He was easily the best defender in the 2nd game and the 2nd best in camp overall.