Eurolanche

Avs on WC (2.): Fantastic Duchene

Second day of IIHF World Championship brought us some interesting results. Another bunch of Avs players appeared in today´s games, so let´s take a closer look at them.

First game on today´s schedule was USA-Austria. Based on the lineups, it should have been easy-peasy walk for team USA, but the final score begs to differ. Austria took big favorite of this game by a surprise and was leading 2-0 after 6 minutes of play. Team USA scored first goal in power play, and Paul Stastny had his hands in it. He added to his score sheet one assist and one point in +/- section. Then also his team mates from Colorado contributed to USA victory, when Erik Johnson scored 2 goals and Matt Hunwick one. Aaron Palushaj added one point in +/- section. Avs footprints were all over the USA success today! Thomas Pöck played also full game for team Austria but didn’t manage to add any points.

Photo: Paul Stastny receiving award for Best Player of the game

Source: www.iihf.com

Just after this game, Canada came on the scene. Game against Denmark brought us another Avalanche players clash. Matt Duchene and Ryan O´Reilly were both playing in Canada jersey whereas Markus Lauridsen was representing Denmark. And again, players from Avalanche were very active. Duchene scored 2 goals and especially one of them will surely compete for the best goal of this WC. He was also voted as best player of the game and well deserved award that was! O´Reilly - playing in the 4^th line managed one shot on goal. Lauridsen in Danish team was playing also a very good game and in first defending pair along with Jesper Jensen made a stop to many attacks from team Canada.

Photo: Matt Duchene in action

Source. www.iihf.com

The last game of Day 2 was Czech Republic vs. Sweden. Clash of Jan Hejda and Gabriel Landeskog was highly anticipated, but this game was more about the defending than attacking and both goalies (Salak and Enroth) did a great job. Sweden won 2-1 and Jan Hejda was on ice while Czechs conceded both goals. That gives him -2 points on his score sheet. Gabriel Landeskog managed in his 14:39 minutes IT, 2 shots on goal and two 2 mins penalties. Only goal by the Czechs was scored by Jiri Hudler (Calgary Flames).

Day 2 results:

USA – Austria 5:3

Norway – Slovenia 3-1

Russia – Latvia 6-0

Finland – Slovakia 2-0

Czech Republic – Sweden 1:2