OHL stars still looking for hardware

By Aaron Bell

Even though Canada has been eliminated from gold medal contention at the World Junior Championships in Alberta, five OHL forwards still have gold medal dreams alive.

Russia and Sweden will face off in the championship game in Calgary on Thursday (8:00 p.m. Eastern on TSN).

The Russian lineup includes Nail Yakupov of the Sarnia Sting, Alexander Kohoklachev of the Windsor Spitfires, and Ivan Telegin of the Barrie Colts while Sweden’’s roster includes Ludvig Rensfeldt of the Sarnia Sting and Rickard Rakell of the Plymouth Whalers.

Yakupov has nine points – all assists – in the World Juniors for Russia and was in high spirits after helping his country to a 6-5 win over the host Canadians in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

“We won and we’re pretty excited right now,” Yakupov said. “We were ready 100%. We scored six goals. We scored more goals and won the game. We beat Canada.”

Canada will face Finland in the bronze medal game on Thursday (3:00 p.m. Eastern on TSN).

Despite not reaching the gold medal game for the first time in 11 years, the Canadians are focused on winning the bronze on Thursday.

“We love the game and we’re playing for our country and we’ve got to win a game now to get a medal,” said Canadian netminder Scott Wedgewood of the Plymouth Whalers. “We’ve got to take pride in that – it still means something to us.

“10 years from now when we’re looking back if we go into that game and don’t give it our all and walk away with nothing. It’s better to have something. For us, it’s got to be something that we pride ourselves on. It’s going to be a tough game.”

One year ago Canada suffered a stunning loss to Russia in the gold medal game in Buffalo, NY. Mark Visentin of the Niagara IceDogs was in net for that loss and said that the Canadians are anxious to rebound from Tuesday’s loss and finish the tournament with a win.

“We want to go out on a winning note,” Visentin said. “Preparations have already started for the Finns tomorrow. I know I want to win badly. We’re going to come out hard tomorrow. We have to play 60 minutes like we did in the third period yesterday.”

Finland’s lineup includes London Knights defenceman Olli Maatta. They were 3-1 in the preliminary round with their only loss coming at the hands of Canada on Boxing Day. They were up 2-0 on Sweden in the semi-finals on Tuesday but lost the game in a shootout.

“Of course it hurts,” Finnish netminder Sami Aittokallio said after their semi-final loss. “I wanted to win a gold medal and now it’s not possible anymore. I’m disappointed.”

Meanwhile Petr Mrazek of the Ottawa 67’s was one of the biggest stories of the 2012 World Juniors. He played every minute for the Czechs and posted a 2.49 goals against average in six games.

His biggest performance of the tournament was in their quarter-final matchup against Russia on Monday.

Mrazek made 43 saves in the game, including 19 in the third period alone to help the Czechs push Russia to overtime. Russia scored in overtime to advance to the semi-finals but Mrazek had already established himself as one of the stars of this year’s tournament.

“If somebody would have told us before the tournament we would be fifth place, we will take it,” Mrazek said. “But it’s a little disappointing after the Russian game.”