Two top Canadiens prospects leave with world junior medals
The Canadiens’ last two firstround draft picks — both defencemen — left the World Junior Hockey Championship with medals, but neither of them won gold.
Noah Juulsen had to settle for silver after Canada’s epic 5-4 shootout loss to the United States in the gold-medal game Thursday night at the Bell Centre, while Mikhail Sergachev earned a bronze in Russia’s 2-1 overtime win over Sweden earlier in the day. Juulsen was selected 26th overall by the Canadiens at the 2015 NHL Draft and Sergachev was the No. 9 pick last year.
Juulsen was pointless in the gold-medal game, logging 20:52 of ice time and a minus-1 rating. Sergachev was pointless in the bronze-medal game, logged 18:18 of ice time and was plus-1. Juulsen finished the tournament with two assists in seven games and was plus-4, while Sergachev had one goal in seven games and was plus-4.
“It’s tough, for sure,” Juulsen said after Canada’s heartbreaking loss. “You go through the whole tournament and it comes down to a shootout. I think as a group we worked hard, but in the end it’s not the outcome we wanted. They snuck one through (in the shootout) and we didn’t, so that’s how it ended.
“I think I had a pretty solid tournament,” the 6-foot-2, 175-pounder added. “I played the role I was given, which was be physical, shut down their guys, and I thought I did a pretty good job.”
Juulsen now heads back to the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, where he has 9-11-20 totals in 25 games and is plus-13. The Silvertips were in first place in the U.S. Division with a 25-5-6 record heading into Friday’s games.
Juulsen admitted it won’t be easy at first returning to the Silvertips after the emotion of the world junior tournament, but added: “We’ve got a pretty good record right now and we’re doing well, so I’m pretty excited.”
Sergachev had a big smile on his face when he met the media after Russia’s victory, but said his very impressive English wasn’t as good as it was before the tournament started.
“I’m speaking both at the same time, so it’s really tough for me,” said Sergachev, who didn’t speak any English when he joined the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires last season but already speaks English better than the Russian players on the Canadiens.
“I feel good,” the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder added. “We won today and it’s pretty special.”
It marked the seventh straight year Russia has won a medal at the world junior tournament.
“Our coaches are, I think, the best coaches in the world right now,” Sergachev said. “They did a really good job in our strategy and stuff.”
Sergachev was pointless in three games with the Canadiens this season before being returned to Windsor and has 2-13-15 totals and is plus-8 in 18 games with the Spitfires, who were in second place in the OHL’s West Division with a 24-7-5 record heading into Friday’s games. The Spitfires will have an automatic berth in this year’s Memorial Cup as the host.
While Sergachev has developed a reputation as an offensive defenceman, he was asked to play a different role on the Russian team, focusing more on defence.
“In junior, I play like 30 minutes a game, but who cares?” he said. “I’m not just an offensive type of guy. I can play defence and I think I played pretty good in the defensive zone.
“I didn’t create a lot of offence and I wasn’t that good in the offensive zone,” he added. “I didn’t play on the first power play, but I was trying to do my best in the D zone and breakouts, blocking shots. I was trying to do my job and help the team somehow.
“I’m going to go back to Windsor and play a lot of minutes again and the play power play and stuff. I’ve just got to play better defence.”
Sergachev said he would probably give his bronze medal to his family to bring back to Russia and he’s excited about the opportunity to win a world junior medal and a Memorial Cup in the same season. But the mature 18-year0ld has a bigger goal in mind.
“I want to play in the NHL next year,” he said.