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The four Boston Bruins who are still in the World Junior Championship have been making waves and playing their way into the upcoming playoff rounds.
Malcolm Subban continues to be the go-to goaltender for Canada. He performed excellently against Team USA on Dec. 30, allowing just one of the 37 shots he saw. Anthony Camara assisted on Canada’s second goal of the game, the last one they needed to beat America 2-1. When the final buzzer sounded and the Canadian flag had been raised, Subban was named Canada’s best player of the game. On the other side of the competition, the American goalie John Gibson got best player honors. Here’s a nice video of some of their best saves:
http://youtu.be/ieG_UOk1KQQ
Subban’s mother said in an interview that her son made the decision to become a goalie at age 12 because he wanted to hear people say this phrase about him: “Holy moly, what a goalie!” He’s earned that phrase.
Russia came off a one-day break to play Canada on Dec. 31 with a trip to the semifinal round of the playoffs in question. The first period was quiet until Valeri Nichuskin earned 25 penalty minutes for checking from behind. Russia has found itself in serious penalty trouble–night-ending-early trouble–in pretty much every game in this tournament so far.
Nail Yakupov said at one point that he thought the Canadians played dirty. As the captain of the Russian team, perhaps he should look inside his own dressing room and wonder what can be done to keep his players playing on the straight and narrow, not earning trips to the press box and hurting their team. Yes, J.C. Lipon got suspended a game, Boone Jenner just played his first tournament game because of a pre-tournament incident and some say Anthony Camara should have received supplemental discipline for his hit, but still, it seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The super-sized power play Canada was granted from the Nichuskin incident led to two separate power play goals, including one from Dougie Hamilton. Subban stood tall once again in goal, allowing just one Russia goal near the end of the first. He also stopped a penalty shot late in the third period. On the other side of that game, Alexander Khokhlachev won 61.90 percent of his faceoffs, but didn’t register any points.
Canada won 4-1 and now sits in the semifinals, awaiting the winner of the USA/Czech Republic quarterfinal game on Jan. 2. Russia will play Switzerland that same day.
Previously in the tournament:
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