
Just four years ago, everything played out perfectly with LA Kings prospects at the World Junior Championships. For the second time in history, they swept the medal podium, led by Alex Turcotte and Team USA taking out Quinton Byfield and Team Canada in a thrilling gold medal game.
This year, at least one of their prospects will be going home early — and only one is guaranteed to make it out of the first round (quarterfinal) matchups.
Canada vs. Czechia
With another classic USA-Canada game on New Year’s Eve, it was the Americans earning to seed in Group A. However, with Sweeden’s victory over Czechia, it also set up a scenario that will see two prospects faceoff today. Either goalie Carter George or defenseman Jakub Dvorak will see their medal hopes come to an end later tonight.
Canada and Czechia is much more than another quarterfinal game on the slate. The two teams met up last year in the first round, with Czechia coming out on top 3-2. It was a disastrous finish for Canada and a repeat outcome this time around would likely be followed by a national outcry north of the border. Playing Canada in Canada is a whole different animal, despite how undisciplined this year’s Canadian team looked just two days ago.
George will also be looking to rebound. He began this year’s tournament with back-to-back shutouts and was the talk of the hockey world. Despite his loss to Team USA, the 18-year-old Kings prospect still leads all goalies in every major statistical category, including a .964 save percentage. Canada is also the lone team still in medal contention who hasn’t given up a five-on-five goal.
Across the ice will be a Czechia squad who have played for a medal at three straight World Juniors, and they’d love nothing more than to do it again this year. Although not predicted to be a gold medal contender coming into things, they’ve proven to be capable of generating offense. In fact, they have three of the WJC’s top-six point producers thus far. They also led the prelims in shooting percentage with 25 goals on 127 shots (19.7%) and had the fourth-best power play (23.1%), along with the third-best penalty kill (84.2%). On defense, Kings prospect Jakub Dvorak played 19:23 minutes in their last game. He’s expected to see plenty of ice time for Czechia again today.
These two countries have been creating quite a history together over the past few years. In addition to the 2024 quarterfinal game, they also faced each other in the 2023 gold medal game (Canada won in OT, 3-2) and in the 2022 semifinals (also a Canada win, 5-2).
One of the aforementioned Kings prospects will be going home after today’s elimination game, and one of them will advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
USA vs. Switzerland
Entering the quarterfinals after an emotional win over Canada in their final game of pool play, Team USA will need to refocus after a day off yesterday. Their hopes of repeating as gold medal winners from a year ago begins with a contest vs. Switzerland.
History hasn’t always been kind to the Americans in the quarterfinals, where they hold a 14-9 record in those games all time. However, with a win today, USA will advance to the semifinals for the eight time in the past 10 years.
The only time these two teams have been paired in a quarterfinal matchup was 2017, with USA coming out ahead 3-2 that day. Overall, Team USA is 24-0-2 when they’ve played Switzerland at the WJC, having never lost, only a pair of ties in pool play ruins an otherwise perfect record.
Kings goaltending prospect Hampton Slukynsky did get one start for USA earlier in the tournament, yet he won’t be in goal today — that assignment goes to Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine, who was about as perfect as the coaching staff could have asked for against Canada last time out.
Following today’s four games, the winners are reseeded for the semifinals. Because U.S. enters as the No. 2 seed, a potential Canada-USA gold medal game would likely require Finland to beat Slovakia in one of the other quarterfinal games today. A Slovakia win would most likely put them on a possible collision course in the semis.
First things first though, both North American teams would need to win — and Czechia will likely make that a big challenge.
All quarterfinal games can be viewed on NHL Network.
Playoff Schedule
Thursday, Jan. 2
Quarterfinal: Sweden vs. latvia – 9:00 am
Quarterfinal: USA vs. Switzerland – 11:30 am
Quarterfinal: Finland vs. Slovakia – 2:00 pm
Quarterfinal: Canada vs. Czechia – 4:30 pm
Saturday, Jan. 4
Semifinal: TBD vs. TBD – 12:30 pm
Semifinal: TBD vs. TBD – 4:30 pm
Sunday, Jan. 5
Bronze medal: TBD vs. TBD – 12:30 pm
Gold medal: TBD vs. TBD – 4:30 pm
MORE LA KINGS NEWS:
December 2024 – Kings Prospect Report on LAKings.com
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