Category Archives: Hockey

The Ice Hockey World Championship is over for this time and we have experienced an amazing tournament in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic the last two weeks. This year’s World Championships was marked by participation of a lot of players from the NHL which raised the quality of the games considerably. The Czech audience has also been world-class, even in games where the host nation didn’t play. We have enjoyed the info, movies and statistics from the tournaments official site during these two weeks: http://www.iihfworlds2015.com/

The stars

Before the World Championships started, many stars from the NHL announced that they would play in the tournament. Russia got their usual core from KHL and added to that a number of superstars from NHL where Jevgenij Malkin might have been the most famous one, together with Alexander Ovechkin who joined the team for the semifinal. Sweden also got a number of reinforcements from North America, many young players such as Filip Forsberg and Oliver Ekman-Larsson which we have seen play in the junior championships now took another step in their career, taking leading roles in the national team, side with side by established stars such as Loui Eriksson. One of the world’s best hockey players, Sidney Crosby, who had won both the Stanley Cup and Olympics, announced that he would come and play for team Canada after Pittsburgh Penguins got eliminated from the 2015 Stanley Cup by New York Rangers. The brightest star this tournament was probably Czech veteran Jaromir Jagr. The 43-year-old legend is still playing at top-level in the NHL and now he got to finish his career in the national team at home. He was a big reason to Czech Republic reaching the semifinal with 2 goals and 1 assist in the quarterfinal against Finland.

After the end of the tournament media nominated an all-star team:

Goalkeeper: Connor Hellebuyck, United States

Defenders: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Sweden and Brent Burns, Canada

Forwards: Jaromir Jagr, Czech Republic – Jason Spezza, Canada – Taylor Hall, Canada

Jason Spezza got the most points in the tournament with 14 points in 10 matches, 6 goals and 8 assists. Canada was so dominant in this tournament that they had actually place two and three points in the scoring league as well (Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall).

Preliminary round

In group A Canada soon emerged as a very dominant team. For the rest of the teams, it was about trying to secure place 2-4 to reach the playoffs. Sweden quickly got an advantage here after beating Czech Republic on shootout in the first game. They got the second place in the group and went to the playoffs with the Czech Republic and Switzerland behind.

Group B was more open. It began with team USA crushing Finland 5-1. However, Finland tightened their game and didn’t let in a goal for three straight games. Belarus played decent hockey few matches and beat team USA. The Russians didn’t exactly push themselves to their limits in the group stage. Slovakia missed the playoffs. United States won the group ahead of Finland. Russia and Belarus placed third and fourth.

Playoffs

In the playoffs Sweden faced Russia in the quarterfinals. After 21 minutes of play, the Russians were ahead by 3-0. Sweden worked their way into the game however, and managed to tie it 3-3. Unfortunately, the deciding event was an unfortunate bounce on a Swedish defenders skate in the third period. 4-3 and Sweden was eliminated.In the other quarter-finals Canada kept their dominance, beating Belarus 9-0. USA outmaneuvered Switzerland and Jaromir Jagr scored three points when Finland got eliminated against Czech Republic in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

In the semi-finals Canada could relatively easy knock out Czech Republic, stopping their offensive play. USA against Russia was an exciting game during one period before the Russians stepped on the throttle and began producing on the offense. United States got the bronze medal however, and Jaromir Jagr’s tale in the Czech national team ended with fourth place. In the final game Canada once again showed their greatness. After sixty minutes played, Russia had been completely outplayed and the result were written to 6-1 Canada. It could probably have been 10-0 but Canada slowed down the phase i the third period, allowing a consolation goal.

Concluding thoughts

What will we take with us from the world championships in the Czech Republic 2015? For the Swedish part, we have a lot of interesting names that will grow into big stars in the NHL. Filip Forsberg can become an heir to a certain Peter Forsberg, though they are not related. He has the same temperament and physical style of play, even if he is more a pure scorer there “Foppa” was an assistant king. However, we must have with all our best players if we are to beat countries like Canada and Russia. They have ten times as many players to choose from that we have and therefore we are more dependent on “yes please” from our professionals when it comes to play in Tre Kronor. Finally, we note that a hockey game lasts for sixty minutes. That we became aware of after losing despite a 3-0 lead against Canada in the group stage. Every minute counts, it’s the team that can manage the whole game who will win. Potential is not enough, you have to get the maximum effect out of the team too. How this equation is best solved coach Pär Mårts will have to think about before the World Ice Hockey Championships in 2016 in Russia.

Canada keep their dominance in the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. After beating the host nation they will now face Russia in the final, who won the semifinal against USA.

Canada 2-0 Czech Republic

The crowd in O2 Arena got to see a one-sided affair with a busy Pavelec in the Czechs goal. 8:40 into the first period Sidney Crosby and Jordan Eberle assisted Taylor Hall who did no mistake, making it 1-0 to Team Canada. While Canada dominated the game, they lacked their regular effectiveness, hitting the posts and crossbar a number of times. 9 minutes into the second period Jason Spezza increased the lead to 2-0. Czech Republic thought they reduced the lead to 2-1 but the referee did wash out, making a call for a questionable offside in front of Mike Smith in the Canadian goal.

USA 0-3 Russia

The second period in the semifinal between these two teams was one of the best periods in the tournament. Both teams exchanged chances and the score could easily have been 3-3 at the 40 minutes break. However, that was not the case and both teams went into the third period with no goals scored. Seven minutes into the third period, Mozyakin skated into the offensive zone and shot the first goal of the game for Russia. It was a good shot, but looking at all the clear goal chances in the second period, it felt like it came from nowhere. The second goal also came from a great individual effort. A day ago, superstar Alexander Ovechkin lost game seven in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Stanley Cup with his Washington Capitals as New York Rangers won in overtime.  Now in the World Championships, he got the puck in front of the net and put a laser beam behind Connor Hellebuyck in the American goal. This was now Russia’s game all over. Shipachyov scored 3-0 on a rebound. Team USA gambled by pulling their goalie with four minutes left but this resulted in a beautiful Russian goal in open net: Malkin to Ovechkin to Malkin, bam! 4-0 Russia, game over.

Russia vs Canada in the final

Russia and Canada will play the final Sunday May 17. Russia won the World Championships in Minsk last year. The last time Canada won the tournament was in 2007. Russia beat Canada in the 2008 and 2009 finals. The final 2008 was a spectacular win on Canadian home soil. However, this year Canada has dominated the tournament with superstars like Sidney Crosby and Tyler Seguin. The final will be a blast, no matter what team wins the gold.

Canada keep their dominance in the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. After beating the host nation they will now face Russia in the final, who won the semifinal against USA.

Canada 2-0 Czech Republic

The crowd in O2 Arena got to see a one-sided affair with a busy Pavelec in the Czechs goal. 8:40 into the first period Sidney Crosby and Jordan Eberle assisted Taylor Hall who did no mistake, making it 1-0 to Team Canada. While Canada dominated the game, they lacked their regular effectiveness, hitting the posts and crossbar a number of times. 9 minutes into the second period Jason Spezza increased the lead to 2-0. Czech Republic thought they reduced the lead to 2-1 but the referee did wash out, making a call for a questionable offside in front of Mike Smith in the Canadian goal.

USA 0-3 Russia

The second period in the semifinal between these two teams was one of the best periods in the tournament. Both teams exchanged chances and the score could easily have been 3-3 at the 40 minutes break. However, that was not the case and both teams went into the third period with no goals scored. Seven minutes into the third period, Mozyakin skated into the offensive zone and shot the first goal of the game for Russia. It was a good shot, but looking at all the clear goal chances in the second period, it felt like it came from nowhere. The second goal also came from a great individual effort. A day ago, superstar Alexander Ovechkin lost game seven in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Stanley Cup with his Washington Capitals as New York Rangers won in overtime.  Now in the World Championships, he got the puck in front of the net and put a laser beam behind Connor Hellebuyck in the American goal. This was now Russia’s game all over. Shipachyov scored 3-0 on a rebound. Team USA gambled by pulling their goalie with four minutes left but this resulted in a beautiful Russian goal in open net: Malkin to Ovechkin to Malkin, bam! 4-0 Russia, game over.

Russia vs Canada in the final

Russia and Canada will play the final Sunday May 17. Russia won the World Championships in Minsk last year. The last time Canada won the tournament was in 2007. Russia beat Canada in the 2008 and 2009 finals. The final 2008 was a spectacular win on Canadian home soil. However, this year Canada has dominated the tournament with superstars like Sidney Crosby and Tyler Seguin. The final will be a blast, no matter what team wins the gold.

In Sweden’s game against Austria the other day, Filip Forsberg scored a hat-trick. In todays game against Latvia, Loui Eriksson, playing in the same line as Forsberg, scored four goals, but a bad call by the referees cut the number down to three. Nevertheless, another hat-trick from Team Sweden.

Sweden 8-1 Latvia

Looking at the first half of this game, it was an even tale between two sloppy teams. Latvia put on a good fight and Sweden took a couple of bad penalties in the beginning of the second period. However, in games like this, when one team have players with a little more edge, that team often come up on top. That was the case today. Eriksson scored the first goal in the first period and the second in the middle period. Latvia reduced the lead to one but soon thereafter Filip Forsberg put the puck up high in the Latvian goal, on a penalty shot. With Sweden’s Three Crowns in a 3-1 lead with three minutes left of the period, Loui Eriksson did his third goal of the game. However, the referees did a bad call, calling it obstruction of the goalie. The replay show that clearly, that was not the case. With 14 seconds to go in the second period, justice was made, and Eriksson completed his hat-trick, scoring 4-1 to Sweden. In the third period Oscar Möller, Jacob Josefsson, Joel Lundqvist and Victor Rask scored one game each, making it a total of 8-1 to Sweden that continues to score a lot of goal in this tournament: 5, 6, 8 in the first three games.

Russia 2-4 USA

Russia hadn’t lost a game in the World Championships since 2013 before todays game against Team USA. However, the young americans, that mostly come from college hockey, managed to create a small “miracle on ice”, winning the game with 4 goals to 2. Trevor Lewis gave USA the lead in the first period. Anton Belov tied the game in the second period just to see Torey Krug giving USA a 2-1 lead once again a few minutes later. With less than ten minutes to go of the game Mark Acrobello extended the lead with another goal. Sergei Plotnikov created some nerve in the game, reducing USA’s lead to 3-2, with four minutes to go. However, Brock Nelson put the last goal of the game in the open Russian net and team USA have broken the Russian winning streak of 12 straight games since 2013. USA might be up to something big this tournament, winning clearly against Team Finland with 5 goals to 1 in their first game.

Czech Republic 3-6 Canada

We got to experience lots of good hockey yesterday, but this game between the host nation and Canada was probably the main event. The home team put good pressure against Mike Smith in the Canadian goal at first, and he made some good saves. Then Jordan Eberle made a typical Canadian goal, grabbing the puck behind the Czech goal, bringing it up front and just shuffle it in between the goalie and the post. Many European forwards can learn from that distinctive move. Canada also scored their second goal with one minute to go of the first period, but only 22 seconds later Martin Erat could reduce the lead 1-2 before an excited home crowd. In the second period Czech Republic tied the game, but Canada took a 3-2 lead shortly thereafter. The third period were mostly about Canada. With two straight power play goals, one signed Sidney Crosby, they were in a comfortable 5-2 lead. Czech Republic made a late 5-3 goal and pulled their goalie but Canada got the last word in this game by putting the puck in the empty net. Canada will meet Sweden in the next game, it will be a real test for Three Crowns!

Finland beat Norway

Finland hadn’t got a single power play goal before this game but when they got the chance to play 5 against 3 they made no mistake. Led by the rookies Esa Lindell and Joonas Kemppainen they shutout Norway with 5 goals to 0. The Finnish lions are picking the Nordic countries one by one, winning against Denmark the other day. At Chicken Swedes we hope that they don’t continue with Sweden in the play offs…

Nashville rookie Filip Forsberg, was self-critical after Sweden’s first game in the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championships where they beat home nation Czech Republic after a shootout. Coach Pär Mårts told the press that he probably shouldn’t expect to spin up the whole defence and score three goals. In Sweden’s second game, that was precisely what Forsberg did!

Austria 1-6 Sweden

Austria kept up with Sweden for half a period in this game. Filip Forsberg did the first Swedish goal after 13 minutes and after the first period Sweden were in a 3-0 goal lead. In the second period, they played around in Austria’s defensive zone and Forsberg scored two more goals. After the end of the middle act, Sweden had a 6-0 lead. In the third period they lowered the phase a bit and Austria got a comfort goal. Sweden’s next game will be against Latvia tomorrow.

Canada 10-0 Germany

As Austria, Germany could keep up with a better team for a few minutes in the first period. They even got two straight power plays. In the end of the second power play, however, Canadian superstar Sidney Crosby scored. That was the first of a total of 10(!) Canadian goals in this game and they have really established themselves as favourites in this tournament. Canada will face home nation Czech Republic tomorrow.

Other results

Another favourite, Russia, beat Slovenia with 5 goals to 2 after two goals and two assists by Jevgenij Dadonov. Finland also took their first victory, beating Denmark with 3-0. Switzerland won a game with a lot of penalty minutes 3-1 against border rivals France. Important points for both Finland and Switzerland who lost their first games. Slovakia got the first overtime win of the tournament when they beat Belarus 2-1. The game was a tight tale starring two excellent goalkeepers.

In this post we list the top ten star players of the 2015 Ice Hockey World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. We have one rule, though: Only one player per team is allowed! There are 16 teams in the tournament, thus 6 teams won’t be represented in our list. The criteria for being on the list is either having a long and succesful career or a brilliant future. There is no specific order of the players listed.

Top ten stars (country), motivation.

Filip Forsberg (Sweden)

Born 1994, did an excellent rookie season for Nashville predators this year with 63 points in 82 games, including a hat-trick in the play offs. He was upset with his performance in the first game of the World Championships against Czech Republic this year. Swedish coach Pär Mårts told the press “What did he expect? Luring the defense up on the stands and three goals?” Well, as we write this, Forsberg just did a hat-trick in Sweden’s second game, against Austria.. A winner, not unlike, but not related, to former Swedish superstar Peter Forsberg.

Sidney Crosby (Canada)

“Sid the kid” has a brilliant future AND a succesful career so far. Born in 1987, he has already won two Olympic gold medals with team Canada (2010 and 2014) and the IIHF World Junior Championships (2005). Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Crosby as number one overall in 2005. In 2008/90 he become the youngest team captain ever to win the Stanley Cup. In the 2010 olympics he was assisting captain and scored the decisive goal in overtime in the final against USA.

Jaromir Jagr (Czech Republic)

Czech Republic veteran forward, born in 1972, has already scored in two games in a row in the 2015 World Championships. He won olympic gold with his national team in Nagano 1998 together during a golden era for the country’s ice-hockey with superstars like Dominik Hasek. In the World Championship he has two gold medals, from 2005 and 2010. His only medal from the Junior World Championships was 25 years ago, a bronze in 1990. He played several seasons for Pittsburgh Penguins, winning Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992. Currently he resides in Florida, playing for the panthers.

Mark Streit (Switzerland)

Switzerland is having a generation shift in their national team. Yet, we have chosen one of their veterans on this list. If Mathias Seger had played the 2015 World Championships, he would be another contender, with 16 straight WC-tournaments for his national team and a total of 106 games. Thereafter comes Martin Plüss with 83 games, but he turned down the national team this year. On third place is veteran defenseman Mark Streit, born in 1977. He has played three Olympic games and thirteen World Championships. Streit is the team captain for Switzerland, assisting captain for Philadelphia Flyers and was captain for the New York Islanders. In the 2007/08-season he did 62 points in 81 games.

Cristobal Huet (France)

The only goalkeeper on the list. 39-year-old France veteran Huet has had a long career both in the national team and in the NHL. He was second goaltender when Chicago Blackhawks won the 2010 Stanley Cup. Huet has also represented Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. He is currently playing for Lausanne in the French league.

Rasmus Ristolainen (Finland)

Ristolainen is a young finish talent (born in 1994), drafted by Buffalo Sabres in the first round. He scored the decisive goal in the World Junior Championships 2014, giving Finland the gold. This year he did most points of all Sabre’s defensemen, 20 points in 78 games.

Jevgenij Malkin (Russia)

If we had not created the rule that allowed only one player per team on this list, more Russian (and Canadian!) players had probably made it. However, we had to choose. If Pavel Datsyuk had been in the team, we probably would have picked him. If Ilya Kovalchuk had won more titles and had a more even temperament, he had been a candidate. However, we picked Malkin. The 28-year-old Russian forward had won both the World Championships (2012 and 2014) and the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh Penguins. He is a heavy, skilled center that broke his contract with Magnitogorsk in 2006 to play in the NHL. He was awarded the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2007.

Jack Eichel (USA)

Our pick from the young team USA that have sent a bunch of college players to this years World Championships. Eichel is expected to go as number two in this summer’s NHL draft. He is described as a talented forward. He was the captain for team USA in the World Juniors this year. Now, at the age of 18, he makes his senior national debut. He scored 71 points in 40 games in the NCAA this season.

Marian Gaborik (Slovakia)

Marian Gaborik is mainly known for his speed. He was the 3rd overall pick in the 2000 draft. He is currently playing in Los Angeles Kings. Last year he won Stanley Cup with the kings, his first big title. Gaborik has also played for Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets. In 2007 he scored 5 goals and made 1 assist in an NHL game.

Anze Kopitar (Slovenia)

Team Slovenia’s big star. He became the first Slovenian player to win Stanley Cup in 2012, with Los Angeles Kings. His second title came together with Marian Gaborik last year when Kings won again. Kopitar is an excellent all-round player with size, speed and good hands. He mixes a good eye for the game with creativity and densive qualities.

Candidates that fell on the goal-line:

Kaspars Daugavins

Tuomo Ruutu

Ilya Kovaltjuk

Andreij Kastitsyn

Loui Eriksson