WJC: U.S. ousts Russia, sets up date with Sweden
BUFFALO, N.Y.— Kieffer Bellows scored twice, including a third-period goal that broke a 2-2 tie, and the Americans went on to beat Russia 4-2 in their world junior quarter-final Tuesday.
The Americans also got goals from Kailer Yamamoto and Joey Anderson, the latter into an empty net but they were almost thwarted by Russian goaltender Vladislav Sukhachyov, who turned aside 37 of 40 U.S. shots.
The U.S. will face unbeaten Sweden, which got two goals from Isac Lundestrom and hung on to defeat Slovakia 3-2. Sweden is the only team with a perfect record.
Fabian Zetterlund scored the other goal for Sweden, making it 2-0 early in the second period. Martin Bodak had both goals for Slovakia. Roman Durny made 36 saves.
Meanwhile, Kristian Reichel and Martin Necas scored shootout goals and the Czech Republic defeated Finland 4-3 in a world junior quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Filip Zadina scored twice in regulation for the Czech Republic, including the tying goal with 2:26 remaining in the third period. Reichel scored the other goal. Josef Korenar made 51 saves.
Aapeli Rasanen, Olli Juolevi and Kristian Vesalainen had goals for Finland. Vesalainen also had the only Finnish goal in the shootout. UkkoPekka Luukkonen made 26 saves.
The Czechs will play Canada in the semifinals on Thursday night.
The Canadians beat the Czech Republic 9-0 on Dec. 20 in a pretournament exhibition game in London, Ont. However, the Czechs didn’t put out their full roster and had just arrived in North America.
In the opener of a three-game relegation series, Andreas Grundtvig scored with 15 seconds left in the third period to lead Denmark to a 5-4 comeback victory over Belarus.
Ticket sales have been an issue throughout the tournament, with attendance for all of Canada’s games at KeyBank Center well below capacity.
massive snowstorm insured that Tuesday’s game was no different, with entire sections in the upper bowl empty and some sections in the lower bowl less than 90 per cent full.
Announced attendance was 5,533, the lowest of the four games the Canadians have played at the home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.
The average attendance for Canadian games at the tournament is 15,236, but that’s buoyed by the 44,592 that attended its 4-3 shootout loss to the United States at New Era Field, the home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, in the first-ever outdoor game in tournament history.