ENTWISTLE MAKING HIS MARK AT THE WORLD JUNIORS
Bulldogs captain Mackenzie Entwistle again made his presence felt as Canada narrowly defeated Switzerland 3-2 in Day 2 action at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Vancouver, BC.
Entwistle scored his second goal of the tournament last night that gave Canada a lead they wouldn’t give up, plus he won some crucial face-offs late in the game to help preserve the win.
Hear what Entwistle had to say after the game:
Day 2 Recap:
CANADA 3, SWITZERLAND 2
A pair of goals from Chicago Blackhawks prospect Philipp Kurashev (Quebec Remparts) made things interesting, but Canada would narrowly prevail in its second preliminary contest on Thursday, defeating Switzerland 3-2 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC.
Cody Glass (Portland Winterhawks) worked alongside Nick Suzuki (Owen Sound Attack) and Maxime Comtois (Drummondville Voltigeurs) to open the scoring just 36 seconds into the first period. Kurashev would respond 46 seconds into the second to knot the score at one before Canada took out a 3-1 lead before the second frame expired.
Goals from MacKenzie Entwistle (Hamilton Bulldogs) and defenceman Noah Dobson (Acadie-Bathurst Titan) put Canada in the driver’s seat before Switzerland took advantage of a late power play to draw within one.
Kurashev scored his second of the night with just 1:49 remaining in the third period, but that’s as close as Switzerland would come as Canada locked down a second straight victory.
Swiss captain Nando Eggenberger (Oshawa Generals) had a pair of assists as his team fell to 0-0-1-1 in the tournament, being outshot 32-17 on the night.
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Ian Scott made 15 saves to earn the win for Canada before a crowd of 17,102.
Canada returns to action on Saturday against the Czech Republic when the puck drops at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
SWEDEN 5, SLOVAKIA 2
Emil Bemstrom scored a pair of goals to lead Sweden to a second straight win, defeating Slovakia 5-2 in Victoria, BC.
Lucas Elvenes, Erik Brannstrom and Isac Lundestrom also scored while Adam Boqvist (London Knights), Rickard Hugg (Kitchener Rangers) and former Soo Greyhounds defenceman Rasmus Sandin picked up assists.
Former CHL forwards in Adam Liska (Kitchener Rangers) and Milos Fafrak (Spokane Chiefs) accounted for Slovakia goals while Patrik Hrehorcak (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies) picked up an assist.
Sweden improves to 2-0-0-0 while Slovakia drops a second straight decision.
RUSSIA 4, DENMARK 0
Vitali Kravtsov, Alexander Romanov, Pavel Shen and Ivan Morozov all scored as Russia skated to a 4-0 victory over Denmark to open their 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship schedule.
Danil Tarasov stopped all 20 shots he faced to record the shutout while Romanov finished with a goal and two assists, Klim Kostin had a pair of helpers and blueliner Alexander Alexeyev (Red Deer Rebels) tallied an assist of his own.
Denmark suffers a second straight shutout loss as goaltender William Rorth made 14 saves.
FINLAND 5, KAZAKHSTAN 0
Finland carried the play, outshooting Kazakhstan 56-18 in a 5-0 victory in Victoria, BC to rebound from a tournament-opening loss on Wednesday.
Otto Latvala, Aarne, Talvitie, Samuli Vainionpaa, Kaapo Kakko and former Swift Current Broncos forward Aleksi Heponiemi all had goals while Filip Lindberg posted the shutout in goal.
For full coverage of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship visit IIHF.com and HockeyCanada.ca.
