SASKATOON ”“ There was no way Canada’s World Junior head coach, Willie Desjardins, would allow an upset of the same magnitude Russia experienced against the Swiss the day prior, and the Canadians put the high flying European team in their place by a score of 6-1 on Jan. 3 in the semi-finals of the IIHF U20 tournament.
Coming off an astonishing upset over the dominant Russian World Junior team on Jan. 2, Team Switzerland faced an unbeaten and formidable Canadian team in the semi-final of the IIHF U20 tournament playoffs in Saskatoon on Jan. 3.
Coming off an offensively shaky performance on Dec. 31 that was overshadowed by Canada’s come-from-behind miracle — a win that managed to propel Team Canada past their North American rivals, Team U.S.A. — the Canadians were lucky to clinch a bye past the quarter finals of tournament playoffs.
Eberle, one of three of Saskatchewan-born players on Team Canda’s roster, continued his offensive dominance against Switzerland and collected a goal in the semi-final match.
Eberle now moves within one point of Jason Allisson for second place on Canada’s all-time World Junior scoring list. In addition, Eberle’s WHL-leading 27 game-winning goals during his time in a Regina Pats uniform solidifies his status as a last minute saviour for whatever team he plays for.
Canada got on the board first with a spinning and firing goal by Eberle to make it 1-0 for Canada early on. The remainder of the period was scoreless but saw Team Canada outshoot Switzerland 19-6. Swiss goaltender Benjamin Conz was responsible for repeatedly rejecting the Canadians at point blank to keep the Swiss within range.
Nearly halfway through the second period Canada started opening up their lead when Martin Scandanella poked in a puck past Conz on the rush, with assist going to Gabriel Borque. Taylor Hall again widened the margin for Canada and banked in the third goal of the game to make it 3-0 for the Canadians.
Mauro Jorg soon answered for the Swiss on the powerplay and made it 3-1 to narrow the Team Swizterland’s deficit to two points. Jorg’s goal was assisted by Patrick Geering and Nino Niederreiter with 7:33 remaining in the second frame.
Brayden Schenn, the other piece of the Saskatchewan puzzle and a Saskatoon native, netted Canada’s fourth goal with 17:04 left on the clock in the third period. Brandon McMillan and Alex Pietrangelo also both got their second assists on the game on the Schenn conversion.
Stefan Della Rovere scored Canada’s fifth goal and Hall permanently shut the door on Switzerland with a perfect wrap-around in the dying minutes of the third period to make it a 6-1 game.
Canadian defenceman Travis Hamonic sustained an irresponsible hit from Jeffrey Fuglister with 58.6 seconds remaining, resulting in a five-minute game misconduct for the Swiss team. It remained undisclosed after the game if Hamonic was okay or not but the hit was the only remaining action of the game in Canada’s 6-1 win.
“I think first and foremost we wanted to get the puck deep and get behind their (defence). I think we did that very well,” said Canada’s captain, Patrice Cormier, following the win.
“In the second (period) we stopped working — I don’t know why. I think we had to check ourselves for the start of the third and I think we did a great job. We worked hard in the third and didn’t give them a lot of chances,” added Cormier.
Canada now prepares to make history and win its sixth consecutive IIHF U20 championship on Jan. 5 at CUC. If Canada pulls out a win in the gold medal match-up against Team U.S.A., it will surpass Canada’s previous record of five consecutive gold medal runs from 1993-1998.
Team Canada Player of the Game: Marco Scandella
Team Switzerland Player of the Game: Mauro Jorg
CUC Attendance: 13, 427
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Video Interview of Jordan Eberel from Robby Davis on Vimeo.
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photo/video: Robby Davis
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