CHL World Junior Update – Day 7

After an off day on New Year’s Day, the World Junior Hockey Championships returns to play with two quarter final games on the schedule as well as one game for teams playing for positions seven to ten. All ten teams have now moved to Halifax as the remainder of the games will be played at the Halifax Metro Centre.

In the first quarter final game of the day the United States will take on the Czech Republic at 4:00 p.m. local time. The United States finished in second place in Group A with a record of 3 wins and a loss, while the Czechs finished in third place in Group B with two wins, one loss and a tie in their four games. The winner of this game will meet Canada in a semi final game on Friday at 8:10 p.m. Halifax time.

The Czech Republic will have seven players from the Canadian Hockey League in its line up while the United States will have three CHL players in today’s line up. A fourth CHL player for the United States, Tim Gleason of the Windsor Spitfires is injured and will not play. Gleason was injured in the U.S.’s first game against Russia on December 26 and he will not play for the rest of the tournament.

Lukas Krajicek of the Peterborough Petes is the Czech Republic’s number two scorer in the tournament with three points on one goal and a pair of helpers. Moose Jaw Warriors forward Tomas Fleischman has scored a pair of goals for the Czechs, including the game winning goal against Germany. The other CHL players suiting up for the Czech Republic are David Turon of the Portland Winter Hawks, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ Petr Taticek, Lukas Mensator of the Ottawa 67’s, the Regina Pats’ Petr Dvorak and Ladislav Kloda of the Oshawa Generals.

For the United States Patrick O’Sullivan has three points on a goal and two assists. O’Sullivan, who plays for the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga IceDogs, was the CHL Rookie of the Year in 2001-02. James Wiesniewski of the Plymouth Whalers is a leader on the United States defence and he has helped out scoring wise with three assists. Dustin Brown of the Guelph Storm scored his first goal of the tournament on Wednesday against Slovakia has two points in the tournament.

The second quarter final game of the day will see Slovakia taking on Finland at 8:10 p.m. Atlantic time tonight. The winner of this contest will meet Russia on Friday in a semi-final game while the loser will play on Saturday against the loser of the U.S. – Czech Republic game to determine places 5 and 6.

Karol Sloboda of the Ottawa 67’s led Slovakia in scoring in the round robin portion of the tournament. Sloboda recorded five points on two goals and three assists and he was a plus five in Slovakia’s first four games. The Prince Albert Raiders’ Igor Pohanka has a team leading three goals and he has added one assist to give him a point total of four. Other CHL players in the line up for Slovakia are Rastislav Lipka of Prince Albert, the Sherbrooke Castors’ Richard Stehlik, Milan Jurcina of the Halifax Mooseheads, Michal Lukac of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, the Belleville Bulls’ Oliver Maron and Tomas Slovak of the Kelowna Rockets.

Dave Lord, Canadian Hockey League