Two Rangers prospects remain at the 2020 World Junior Championships
And then there were two. The first day of the elimination round at the 2020 World Junior Championships and the only New York Rangers prospects left are from Sweden.
The World Junior Championships are cruel. It’s a lose and you are out format and that’s exactly what happened to Team USA and Team Switzerland. Three of the five New York Rangers prospects were eliminated with only Nils Lundkvist and Karl Henriksson left representing the Blueshirts in the semifinal round on Saturday.
The two Swedes will move on after their team dominated the host Czech Republic team, 5-0. Karl Henriksson didn’t score in 13:25 minutes of ice time, but Nils Lundkvist continued his point a game play by earning an assist on the final goal scored by Sweden.
https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1212845112964849665
Lundkvist played 19:30, second highest among Swedish players and had the secondary assist after gaining entry to the Czech zone.
United States Eliminated
In a rematch of last year’s gold medal game, the United States played Finland. Just like last year, it was a very tight game and the final result was the same, a win for Finland. The final score was 1-0 as the Finns Joonas Odin scored on the power play at 4:23 of the third period. It was a bitter disappointment for the Americans who went home without a medal for the first time in five years.
Last year it was Kaapo Kakko who scored with 1:26 left in the game to win it for Finland.
A New York Rangers prospect was almost the hero in today’s game. With just under five minutes left in the second period, Zac Jones put a shot off the crossbar, just inches from scoring first for the USA. In the recap video below, the Jones shot is at the 2:40 mark.
https://twitter.com/IIHFHockey/status/1212856091756781569
That was the closest the United States came to scoring.
K’Andre Miller led all players on Team USA in ice time with 21:36 against Finland. He finished the tournament with two assists in five games and averaged 19:24 minutes per game and was a +1. He’s headed back to play for the University of Wisconsin.
Zac Jones played 18:11 against Finland and had another in a series of excellent games. He finished the tournament with a goal and an assist in five games (and two crossbars). He was also a +1 on the tournament and his 12 shots on goal were the most by any American defenseman and third most on the team. Jones will carry on for the University of Massachusetts.
The last Rangers prospect in the tournament was Nico Gross of Switzerland and they lost to 3-1 to Russia. Gross returned to the lineup after missing two games with an upper body injury, played 16:24 and had two shots on goal. Gross will return to his Canadian Juniors team, the Oshawa General in the Ontario Hockey League.
The Semifinal round is on Saturday, January 3 with Canada facing Finland and Team Sweden taking on Russia. You can watch the two remaining Rangers prospects take on the Russians at 9am EST on the NHL Network. Canada will play Finland at 1pm EST also on the NHL Network.
More. Kicking off 2020 in Calgary. light