New York Rangers prospects: WJC day 1 recap

Thursday was day one of 2020 World Junior Championships.  There are several New York Rangers prospects playing in the tournament and  they were all in action on the first day.

There are five New York Rangers prospects participating in the World Junior Championships. Sweden and the United States feature two for each team. Switzerland has one potential future Blueshirt.  Although Leevi Altonen was invited to the Finnish camp, he didn’t make the final squad.  All five were in action on the first day of the tournament.

Canada 6, United State 4

The marquee match-up of the day was the game between Canada and the United States. Canada prevailed 6-4.  There are no New York Rangers prospects on Team Canada, but Team USA features K’Andre Miller and Zac Jones, both highly regarded defenseman.

Miller led all USA defensemen in ice time with 19:39 and finished the game with a minus one rating and one shot on goal. It was a Miller turnover on a heavy Canada forecheck that led to them scoring the winning goal with 3:10 left in the game.

In the video, K’Andre Miller is #19 and gives up the puck under pressure from Canada’s Nolan Foote. Miller hands the puck to  Alexis Lafreniere who scores.  Lafreniere is projected to be the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.

Zac Jones did get an assist on Team USA’s first goal by Shane Pinto. He played 17:23 and finished minus one on the contest.

It was Jones (#6) who took the point shot that Shane Pinto deflected to give Team USA a one goal lead. Pinto also scored a power play goal that was disallowed as it entered the net just after the second period had ended.  Jones was on the ice for that play as well.  It would have knotted the score at three.

Sweden 3, Finland 2 (Overtime)

In one of the more exciting  games of the first day, Sweden defeated arch-rival Finland in overtime It was the 49th straight preliminary round win for Team Sweden with their last loss in 2008.

Team Sweden has defenseman Nils Lundkvist and center Karl Henriksson are Blueshirts prospects on the Swedish roster.  Lundkvist was paired with Rasmus Sandin on the first defense pairing and he played 23:18.  He finished the game plus one, but didn’t dent the scoresheet.

Karl Henriksson played almost 13 minutes and finished minus two on the game.

Switzerland 5, Kazakhstan 3

Last year Switzerland was one of the surprise teams of the tournament, but Thursday they were challenged by Kazakhstan as they  went into the third period tied 3-3 before Switzerland put the game away in the third period.  Defenseman Nico Gross is the Rangers prospect on Team Switzerland and he was scoreless after playing 11:54.   He finished minus one with three shots on goal and took a roughing penalty with about ten minutes left in the game.

Gross is the only one of the Rangers’ European prospects in the WJC who is playing in North American as he is a defenseman for the Oshawa General.  He played for the Swiss team last year when they upset Team Sweden in the first game of the medal round.

Games today

There are only two games today with one featuring Rangers prospects.  Team USA takes on Germany while Slovakia plays Kazakhstan.  It’s a must win for the United States after their opening game loss and it will be Germany’s first match of the tournament.

The US-Germany game will be televised on the NHL Network at 1pm EST.

The only game featuring Rangers prospects on Saturday will be a match between Sweden and Switzerland at 1pm EST, also on the NHL Network.