CANADA ACES CZECH TEST
Sweden up next in semifinal
Mitchell Stephens didn’t want to talk about it.
“Next question,” he had said when asked about the ankle injury that had kept the Team Canada forward out of the lineup for the previous two games.
The point was that whatever had been bothering Stephens was no longer an issue. And in a 5-3 quarter-final win against the Czech Republic at the world junior championship on Monday, he proved it.
Stephens, the 19-year-old from Peterborough, Ont., who had gone without a point in the first two games before his injury, broke out with a goal and two assists in his return on Monday night. It was the type of gamebreaking performance that Canada had been missing when it lost 3-1 to the United States in its final round robin game on Saturday.
“Well, being off for a couple of days helped, I guess,” Stephens said with a laugh. “It’s tough when you come out of an injury and go back into the system and try to get your legs under you. It was a team effort tonight. I wouldn’t say it was one individual guy.”
Canada now faces undefeated Sweden in one of Wednesday’s semifinals. Sweden beat Slovakia 8-3 in their quarter-final date Monday.
“They’re a good team,” Team Canada captain Dylan Strome said of the Swedes. “We’re going to have to be aware. We’re going to have to be aware on all sides of the puck and in the offensive zone. They can attack just as quick as we can.”
Certainly, the team will need to be better against Sweden than it was against the Czech Republic.
Canada went into the quarterfinal having crushed the Czech Republic 8-0 and 5-0 in a pair of pre-tournament games. Since then, Canada had cruised to the medal round, outscoring opponents 21-8 and winning three of four games. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic managed just one win in its four- game slate.
But the quarter-final was a different beast. When it’s a singleelimination game, anything can happen — as was the case a year ago when Canada lost 6-5 to eventual champion Finland in the quarter-final.
“You can’t take any team for granted,” Strome said. “You’ve got to be prepared for anything.”
Monday’s effort against the Czech Republic was not much different. Strome said Canada seemed “a little nervous” at times.
Still, no one could have predicted that the game would be this close — or that the game would start so poorly for Canada.
The Czechs not only scored the game’s first goal, they got it on the luckiest of bounces, with goalie Connor Ingram stopping a shot only to watch the rebound ricochet off a referee’s backside and onto the waiting stick of David Kase.
“I’ve never seen one go straight to a guy like that,” said Ingram, who stopped 13 of 16 shots. “I’ve seen one go off a linesman setting up a breakaway or a two-on-one or something like that, but I’ve never seen one like tonight. That’s something new and it’s going to happen once in a blue moon.”
By the end of the first period, Canada trailed 1-0 and left to boos from the home crowd. But the team settled down in the second period and jumped out to a 2-1 lead, thanks to Stephens, whom Strome called “our best player tonight.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, who has 28 points in 22 games in the Ontario Hockey League this season, has provided much-needed spark for Canada at the world juniors whether his team is down a goal or tied.
“He’s an energy guy,” Ingram said. “He’s huge for us and I thought this was one of the best games I’ve seen him play. He was fantastic tonight.”
Shortly after Mathieu Joseph stole a clearing attempt, Stephens took a pass low and found Blake Speers in front of the net for a redirect goal past Czech goaltender Jakub Skarek. Stephens then gave Canada a 2-1 lead when he beat the Czech goalie from the top of the faceoff circle.
With the score tied 2-2, Stephens picked up his second assist when he set up defenceman Thomas Chabot, who toedragged around a Czech defender and scored his third goal of the tournament.
But this one wasn’t easy — not by a long stretch.
Every time Canada tried to distance itself from the Czech Republic, its opponent kept nipping at its heels, trying to close the gap. Part of the reason Canada hung on was Ingram, who stopped eight of 10 shots in the third period.
Canada’s Julien Gauthier made it 4-2 in the third period. But the Czechs scored less than two minutes later to make it 4-3. Gauthier scored again to make it 5-3 and the Czechs kept pressing, looking for more.
If anything, it was a wake-up call for what lies ahead.