Quarter final time at WJC
02 Jan 2020 | Fredrik Pålsson
Sweden keeps winning streak alive.
Sweden keep the 13 year long winning streak at the World Juniors preliminary round alive and have now won 52 games in a row in the group stage. The streak took them on top of group A. The streak almost ended against Finland but Sweden came back and won the game in overtime. After that Sweden had three comfortable wins. The Swedes will play the hosts Czech Republic in the quarter finals.
The Czechs started the tournament with a strong win against Russia but then lost three straight games including against Germany. However the point for the overtime loss against USA was enough to keep them out of relegation round.
Group B was the much stronger group and despite a 0-6 loss against Russia Canada clinched first place with three wins. The wins against USA and Germany were very close. Canada will now face Slovakia in the quarter finals. Slovakia's only win was against Kazakhstan in a close 3-1 battle. Canada are huge favourites in this game.
USA finished in second place in Group B only losing to Canada. Trevor Zegras is leading the tournament in points scored with nine assists. Zegras and his team mates will now face Finland who a bit surprisingly had a clear 2-5 loss against Switzerland.
For finishing second the Swiss were "rewarded" with a hard quarter final matchup against Russia. The Russians were up and down in the first round with the 6-0 victory against Canada standing out but lost both to USA and the Czech Republic.
Germany as newcomers made a strong effort in the very hard group B but the win against the hosts wasn't enough and they will now face Kazakhstan in the relegation round. Kazakhstan who had no points in the group stage.