The Puck Stops Here

Yesterday, the semi-finals were played at the World Junior Hockey Championships. This is hot on the heels of the round robin and the quarterfinals. Here are the results:

Canada 4 Finland 0 Toronto Maple Leaf prospect Justin Pogge made 19 saves for a shutout for Canada. Finland's goalie Tuukka Rask (also a Toronto prospect) had a solid game as well but was unable to handle the Canadian attack, nevertheless he stopped 43 of 47 shots and was one of the main reasons Finland kept the game as close as four goals. Canada's goals were scored by Kris Russell (a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect), Blake Comeau (a New York Islanders prospect), Kristopher Letang (a Pittsburgh Penguin prospect) and Andrew Cogliano (an Edmonton Oiler prospect).

Russia 5 USA 1 Russian goalie Anton Khodobin (a Minnesota Wild prospect) had a good game stopping 34 of 35 American shots. Russia jumped out to a 2-0 lead on two goals by Nikolai Kulemin who is undrafted so far. Jack Skille (a Chicago Blackhawk prospect) scored for USA. Russia added three more unanswered goals from Alexei Emelin (a Montreal Canadien prospect), Sergei Shirokov (who is undrafted) and Nikolai Lemtyugov (a St Louis Blue prospect).

The medal round games of USA vs. Finland for Bronze/ 4th place and Canada vs. Russia for gold and silver are tomorrow.