On a night featuring Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia and Latvia in action at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, it's not exactly a heavy-hitting slate.
With that said, the Danes are off to a surprising second place start in Group A, with a 1-1-0-1 record which includes a 3-2 victory over Finland and 3-2 win vs. Michael Spacek's Czech Republic. Denmark has been led by Nikolaj Krag Christensen (STL, 2016) and Joachim Blichfeld (SJS, 2016), who have three points each. The Swiss will play without forward Calvin Thurkauf (CBJ, 2016), after his slew-foot of Swedish phenom Rasmus Dahlin.
Calvin Thürkauf stängs av efter tilltaget mot Rasmus Dahlin https://t.co/q7jSARg0AN Foto: SVT pic.twitter.com/9GcaAe5UeV
— SportExpressen (@SportExpressen) December 29, 2016
Slovakia and Latvia are both looking to bounce back from tough losses, 5-2 to Team USA and 10-2 to Team Canada, respectively. While they're only two games in, Slovakia's offence is already looking somewhat anemic. Centre Boris Sadecky has two points, four other players have a single point, and there's not much else happening. Playing a Latvia squad with a minus 21 goal differential should bode well for Slovakia
Happy hockey!
Game 1: Switzerland vs. Denmark
