This year The World U18 Championship took place in Slovakia. Piestany and Trnava were hosting for eleven days top hockey kids from the whole world. For the first time the U18 championship had twelve teams and one of them was Canada, which entered this competition for the first time. Teams were separated into two different groups and teams in the group played each other. Than the first three teams played three more games in final round (the game results A1-A2, A1-A3, A2-A3, B1-B2, B1-B3, B2-B3 from prelinary round also counted for the final round. Other teams played in relegation round.
Group A - Piestany 1. Russia 5 5 0 0 34:10 10 2. Czech Republic 5 4 0 1 25:12 8 3. Canada 5 3 0 2 21:17 6 4. Norway 5 1 1 3 13:23 3 5. Slovakia 5 1 0 4 10:19 2 6. Germany 5 0 1 4 7:29 1 Group B - Trnava 1. USA 5 5 0 0 33:5 10 2. Finland 5 4 0 1 22:7 8 3. Belarus 5 2 0 3 14:21 4 4. Sweden 5 2 0 3 16:16 4 5. Switzerland 5 2 0 3 18:21 4 6. Ukraine 5 0 0 5 4:37 0 Relegation Round 1. Switzerland 5 5 0 0 28:6 10 2. Slovakia 5 3 0 2 15:11 6 3. Sweden 5 3 0 2 20:13 6 4. Germany 5 1 1 3 9:16 3 5. Norway 5 1 1 3 12:20 3 6. Ukraine 5 1 0 4 9:27 2 Final Round 1. USA 5 4 0 1 25:7 8 2. Russia 5 4 0 1 29:13 8 3. Czech Republic 5 4 0 1 17:9 8 4. Finland 5 2 0 3 14:15 4 5. Belarus 5 1 0 4 9:32 2 6. Canada 5 0 0 5 12:30 0
Team Analysis
1. USA- Whole team played very well. Defensmen cleared the area in front of the net perfectly and forwards played clever, but aggressive game in offensive zone. This team had no weakness and that was the main reason for winning the gold medals.
James Howard GK 03/26/84 186 cm 93 kg
Very confident goalie. James covered most shots and even if he had some problems with them his teammates helped him and gave him enough time to solve the problem. His big size also helped him to cover almost all rebounds.
Mark Stuart D 04/27/84 188 cm 100 kg
The team captain. Real leader, he used his size very well and helped the team to reach self- confidence in the most important moments.
Patrick O`Sullivan C 02/01/85 179 cm 80 kg
Even if he`s bit smaller he always went in front of the net. Patrick was also valuable in power plays where he played blueliner`s role. He often tried it with one-timers or skated to the net if there was enough space.
2. Russia- Russians were the best skaters and stickhandlers as well as years ago. But they had one weakness, because their goalie Khudiakov couldn`t be compared with the top goalies like Howard, Mensator or Finns Tervo and Toivonen. Forwards were extremely quick, but some of them played bit selfish (probably because of scouts watching them).
Anton Babchuk D 05/06/84 195 cm 91 kg
The best ranked (CSS) guy at the tournament. He scored 3 goals using his rocket slap shot. I just expected him to play bit more aggressive in his own end.
Alexander Ovechkin LW 09/17/85 187 cm 85 kg
Sasha was marvelous. He led the tournament in scoring even if he was one of the youngest here. He`s got complete shot arsenal and he showed it 14 times that is better than Ilja Kovalchuk`s last year performance. He was the most favorite player and people were fascinated by his super skills.
Nikolay Zherdev LW 11/05/84 184 cm 81 kg
He was named the best forward of the tournament. He`s got also marvelous skills, but he played extremely selfish for whole tournament.
3. Czech Republic- Next team from big trio. In spite of the fact that Czechs missed some guys from North America, they could compete with Russians or Americans. Czech fans who arrived to Piestany helped them, too.
Lukas Mensator GK 08/18/84 172 cm 74 kg
He made two mistakes in game against team Russia. On the other side he helped his team with his shootout against USA and was named the best goalie of the tournament.
Jiri Hudler C 01/04/84 179 cm 77 kg
Smallish forward who led his team (team captain) to the first Czech medal in this age category. He was the best one from 2002 draft eligible players at this tournament.
4. Finland- Team with best goalie duo. Tervo and Toivonen were both very good, so Finns didn`t have classical No.1 goalie. The team missed the leader, but they tried hard and showed beatiful performance.
Sean Bergenheim RW 02/08/84 181 cm 87 kg
Team Finland scoring leader. With his linemate Valterri Filppula they made a lot of troubles in opponent;s own zone. In the game against Russia his line missed a bit of luck, because they had several marvelous scoring chances to tie the game.
5. Belarus- They surprised all experts when they beat Switzerland in group A and qualified to the final round.
6. Canada- Canadian National teams usually need some time to get used to different rules and new teammates, so I thought they will be better game-by-game. In the first game (vs. Russia) they played very good with big aggressivity in front of opponent`s net. I was very surprised when they got worse and in final round they lost all three games. Team missed some reliable goalie and D-men.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard C 04/27/84 178 cm 68 kg
Smallish center who had very nice numbers at the tournament scoring 4 goals, 12 points and winning 63% of face-offs.
7. Switzerland- Candidate for medal dissapointed when they lost the game against Belarus. On the other hand they won relegation round with five wins in five games.
8. Slovakia- Hosting team was full of weak smallish players who had big problems in one-on-one duels.
Richard Stehlik D 06/22/84 194 cm 104 kg
Even if he made several mistakes he was the team captain and helped with his leadership and hard work. He was also scoring leader with 3 goals and 6 points.
Andrej Meszaros D 10/13/85 186 cm 81 kg
The youngest player in the team showed pretty good game. He was named team`s MVP in game against Czech Republic. His offensive tools helped team in offensive zone.
9. Sweden
10. Norway
11. Germany
12. Ukraine
Leading goaltenders GAA Name Team GPI MIN GAA SVS SO James Howard USA 6 360 1,33 95,43 1 Lukas Mensator CZE 7 420 1,57 94,66 1 Tommi Tervo FIN 4 238 1,77 93,27 1 Hannu Toivonen FIN 5 242 2,23 92,97 1 Goal Scoring Leaders Name Team GP G A P PIM Alexander Ovechkin RUS 8 14 4 18 0 Kevin Romy SUE 8 9 5 14 4 Brett Sterling USA 8 9 3 12 4 Sean Bergenheim FIN 8 8 4 12 6 Alexander Semin RUS 8 8 7 15 16 Scoring Leaders Name Team GP G A P PIM Alexander Ovechkin RUS 8 14 4 18 0 Alexander Semin RUS 8 8 7 15 16 Patrick O`Sullivan USA 8 7 8 15 37 Kevin Romy SUE 8 9 5 14 4 Jiri Hudler CZE 8 7 7 14 8 Brett Sterling USA 8 9 3 12 4 Sean Bergenheim FIN 8 8 4 12 6 Pierre-Marc Bouchard CAN 8 4 8 12 16 Patrick Eaves USA 8 4 8 12 45 Nikolay Zherdev RUS 8 6 5 11 22 Defenseman Scoring Leaders Name Team GP G A P PIM Daniel Sondell SWE 8 3 4 7 2 Konstantin Korneev RUS 8 2 5 7 0 Ryan Suter USA 8 1 6 7 12 Ondrej Nemec CZE 8 1 6 7 45 Michal Barinka CZE 8 4 2 6 6Best goalie (IIHF)- Lukas Mensator (CZE)
My opinion- James Howard (USA)
Best defenseman (IIHF)- Ryan Suter (USA)
My opinion- Mark Stuart (USA)
Best forward (IIHF)- Nikolay Zherdev (RUS)
My opinion- Alexander Ovechkin (RUS)
All Stars Team (press)- Lukas Mensator- Konstantin Korneev (RUS), Richard Stehlik (SVK)- Alexander Ovechkin, Jiri Hudler (CZE), Nikolay Zherdev
My All Stars Team- James Howard – Mark Stuart, Ryan Suter- Alexander Ovechkin, Jiri Hudler, Patrick O`Sullivan (USA)
