World Junior 2015: Team USA tightens up in opening win over Finland, allays concerns about its blueline
MONTREAL — One own goal against in 65 minutes was a good sign for Team USA's, whose capabilities behind their own blueline were questioned coming into the world junior championship.
The second favourite — or first, depending on whom you talk to — sustained a setback when 19-year-old New Jersey Devils prospect Steven Santini was precluded from being on the final roster due to an arm injury. In his absense, the remaining group of seven in front of Thatcher Demko limited Finland to 29 shots during a 2-1 shootout victory in front an announced crowd of 8,006 at the Bell Centre on Friday. Apart from some frantic moments in the third period when Finland's Julius Honka hit the crossbar, the U.S. kept it tidy in front of Demko, which temporarily perishes the thought they will have to outscore everyone to win gold.
"When you're losing a big player, it's obviously tough to see a guy who works that hard and is a leader and such a good player like [Santini] out of the lineup," said Anthony DeAngelo, the 19-year-old Sarnia Sting star who earned the second assist on Alex Tuch's first-period goal. "But we know we have seven other guys that can do the job for him and we're going to pick up for him.
"I thought we were pretty good defensively," the Tampa Bay Lightning first-round choice added. "Finland is a tough team to play against, they came at us hard. It was tough to shut them down. But I thought Thatcher played extermely well and our team defence was pretty structured."
The result gives Team USA two points in Group A, with Finland getting one for the regulation tie.
The best defenceman on the ice was Honka, who couldn't keep Jack Eichel from pulling off a pretty passing play for the U.S. goal but was otherwise omnipresent. The U.S. crew on the back end improved as the day progressed, with Colorado Avalanche prospect Will Butcher picking up the best player award after a solid afternoon that included blocking a Juuso Ikonen shot in the final seconds of the 4-on-4 overtime. DeAngelo, Boston College's Ian McCoshen, the Minnesota Golden Gophers' Ryan Collins and NHL draft prospects Brandon Carlo, Noah Hanifin and Zach Werenski looked more self-assured by the game's end. They also had to kill off three third-period penalties.
"The more we play with each other, the better chemistry we get," said the 17-year-old Hanifin, who's considered a favourite to be the first defenceman off the board in the NHL draft after Connor McDavid and Eichel go 1-2.
Team USA betrayed its youth with a gift goal just 82 seconds after the opening faceoff. Demko, the 19-year-old Vancouver Canucks prospect, went to leave the puck behind his goal for Auston Matthews, the 17-year-old who's considered the early fave to go No. 1 overall in the 2016 NHL entry draft. Instead, Demko passed the puck to Mikko Rantanen, who banked the puck off Matthews and into the net.
It conjured up memories of Team USA's opening loss in the 2012 WJC against Finland, which sent into a spiral that ended with a seventh-place finish. Instead, they settled down to control most of the first 40 minutes.
"The goal I let in during the first five minutes could be considered weak and we didn't get discouraged by it, so that was a good sign," said Demko, who finished with 28 saves and stopped 2-of-3 shootout tries.
The post-game narrative would have been different if a Honka shot in the third had been an inch lower. Instead, the puck bounced out.
"We know we have a good team and we know we can battle with these big countries here," said Honka, the Swift Current Broncos grad who plays for the Dallas Stars' AHL team. "The power play was pretty good, but overall it was pretty good. If we keep playing like that we will do well."
Finland's "conversative game," as Hanifin called it, might have played into Team USA's hands. However, it looked much more composed in its own zone than it did earlier in the week during pre-competition games in Kingston, Ont., when it needed a lot of offence against Germany (5-2 last Sunday) and Sweden (10-5 on Tuesday).
"The games before, you can't read too much into," DeAngelo said. "Those are about just getting used to each other. We were pretty good defensively today. We'll take that as our starting point."
While Canada opens with back-to-back games vs. Slovakia and Germany, the U.S. is off on Day 2 before facing Germany on Sunday.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
