Day 2 of the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship is upon us. Here’s how you can watch the second day of preliminary round action.
The 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship tournament is officially underway. Both the United States and Canada got off to strong starts as they wait to face each other outdoors. But before then, there’s the second day of preliminary round action.
Starting at 3:00 p.m. ET, Switzerland and Belarus will do battle. This game can be seen on TSN (1 and 3) and NHL Network.
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While the Swiss will be without Nico Hischier, the anchor of their past three tournament teams, they still field a very impressive roster. Defenseman Tobias Geisser, drafted by the Washington Capitals, is their only player whose rights are owned by an NHL team.
Phillip Kurashev is a guy to keep an eye on. He’s pushing nearly a point per game pace in the QMJHL and should be drafted within the first three rounds of the 2018 NHL Draft. Switzerland will be relying heavily on a few guys to produce, but they could surprise. This will be the first game of the tournament for the Swiss.
Meanwhile, Belarus has one of the more fascinating teams in the tournament. They aren’t even close to being at the level of Finland, Sweden, Canada or the USA. But hockey is growing quickly in Belarus, and it shows as they’ll have Maxim Sushko (a Philadelphia Flyers prospect) and Vladislav Yeryomenko of the Calgary Hitmen leading their forward group. They lost their first game 6-1 to Sweden.
The main event will be Canada taking on Slovakia at 7:00 p.m. ET. You can watch it on TSN (1,3, and 4) and RDS2 in Canada. In America, it will be shown on NHL Network. Canada has an outstanding roster, but they didn’t play as well as anticipated against Finland. Carter Hart was amazing in goal and made up for a lot of their mistakes. Canada plays a speed game based on creating turnovers. Robert Thomas is the guy to watch for them, but they have a very deep roster.
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Slovakia will be the underdog in this fight. Forwards Adam Ruzicka (Calgary Flames) and Marian Studenic (New Jersey Devils) lead their forward group. Dávid Hrenák, who is doing quite well in the NCAA, will hope to give them a chance against one of the best junior teams at the tournament.