Catching Up With The Cats At World Championships

World Championships are well underway, and Team Finland, led by captain Sasha Barkov, is rolling through pool play. The Finns started the week strong with a dominant 6-2 win over Team USA. Both Barkov and Lundell had strong days in the faceoff dots as Sasha went 14-3 for an 82.35 FO% while Anton went 7-5 for a 58.33 FO%. Lundell totaled 6 SOG and scored the final goal of the game for Finland. The Finns followed it up with a 7-1 blowout win against Latvia. Lundell scored a power play goal in the third period to make things 5-1 with a Barkov secondary assist. Aleksander went 15-5 for a 75.00 FO% and Anton went 6-3 for a 66.67 FO%. Against Great Britain, Barkov recorded another assist and went 6-4 in the faceoff dot for a 60.00 FO% and recorded his highest SOG to date at 6. Lundell didn’t find the scoresheet but went 8-3 in the dot for a 72.73 FO% and had 5 SOG. Team Finland is currently undefeated in pool play.

It’s been a rough week for a young USA team. No Matthew Tkachuk against Finland to start the week, but he did arrive for USA’s match against Germany. Tkachuk played 23:10, which was second on the team in ice time behind captain Justin Faulk (26:51). It wasn’t the smoothest first game back after the Panthers’ season ended, but that’s not surprising given that Matthew didn’t play in any of the games leading up to the World Championships, nor was he there for the start of the tournament. But USA got the win in the shootout. Tkachuk had a much better second game against Latvia on Saturday morning. His power play goal tied the game 1-1 in the second period and he had the primary assist on the Olivier goal that made things 2-3 in the third. Tkachuk had a staggering 12 SOG against Latvia, with seven of them coming in the second period. He also logged 24:40 TOI in the match. USA lost 2-4 to the Latvians. 

Panther prospect Sandis Vilmanis is having a good tournament for Team Latvia. Against the Swiss, he recorded a secondary assist on the first Balcers’ goal and a primary assist on the second Balcers’ goal. He had 3 SOG and logged 22:23 TOI to lead the team. He had a quieter day against Germany but still led the team in ice time at 21:51 with his shifts averaging almost a minute each. He didn’t find the scoresheet against Austria either, but he did tally 4 SOG in 25:15 TOI in their 1-3 loss. Against Finland, he recorded the only assist on the lone Balcers goal with 24:50 TOI. Saturday morning against Team USA, Vilmanis scored two goals and had the primary assist on the Smirnovs goal that gave Latvia the 2-1 lead en route to the 4-2 final score. Sandis only had 3 SOG in 23:06 TOI, but got the two goals out of it, even if they were both empty netters. 

Overall, it’s been a strong week for the Panthers players who are over in Zurich. Team Finland looks especially strong at the moment, which isn’t too surprising when their 1C & 2C are Barkov and Lundell. Tkachuk, I expect, will get better as he plays more games, and Vilmanis is adding to his international play resume, making a strong case for him to be on the Panthers’ roster next season.