Day one complete at U17

[Nielson81]

15 JOENSUU Jesse F L 192 / 6'4'' 88 / 194 05.10.1987

Ahhh October 5th...late 87.

 

[cagney]

The US forward crop does seem weak. The only guy who seems to be exciting besides Mueller is Okposo but he's not playing a schedule that would really allow you to see how good he is. Besides them I've heard Ryan Flynn has a good package of size and skill. Outside of that most of the other skilled guys are pretty small.

The defense looks to be pretty solid. Johnson seems like he could be a stud. Dowzak seems to have what every NHL scout looks for (6'5" 220) but that also makes me a little skeptical. I've heard good things about a number of other guys but I don't know if they are exceptional or just good.

The '89s are still a bit of a mystery to me. There seem to be some good players but few are doing anything exceptional from what I can see.

 

[MaV]

Born in Oct '87. The forwards playing U18 as underaged, Robert Nyholm, Max Wärn and Joonas Kemppainen, are the key players Finland is missing.

Actually, who can say if Wärn would have been selected to play for the U17s? He was in no tournament or camp last year with U16 and this year went pointless in his only U17 participation, Pikkuleijonat-turnaus -tournament.

 

[Diaboli]

He's an '87. This tournament is for '88s.

oops. Sorry, my bad.

 

[HabLover]

The 1988 born U.S. players are for the most part a weak lot. They have some fairly decent D men but with the exception of Mueller lack any star forwards.

From what I've been told, with a few exceptions, the 1989 class isn't a whole lot better.

The only good thing is that Canada's 1988 class isn't that much better than ours.

I don't know how you can claim that Canada is weak in the '88 born year as 4 regional teams swept the spots for the semi's! For teams like the USA, Finland, Slovakia and the Czech's to not finish ahead of 4 regional squads is not very impressive. Each of those countries do have players that weren't at this tourney, the most notable being Frolik from the Czech Republic. Canada at the '88 year is no '85 or '87 born year and may not have a Crosby, but they are very deep and have a lot of talent in guys like Toews, McDonough, Sheppard, Swystun, Hamill, Emmerton, Irving, etc. The talent is endless!

As you will read, total domination!

After five days of round robin play, the semi finals are set for the 2005 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. Teams Atlantic, Ontario, Pacific, and West all qualified for the semi-finals being held Monday.

This is the first time four Canadian team have qualified for the semi-finals, and for the first time in Team Atlantics 19 year history, they have made the medal round.

In Pool A, Team West earned the top spot as they finished the round robin with a record of 3-1-0. Team Ontario finished second with their identical record of 3-1-0. With both teams tied at 6 points apiece, Team West gets the top spot by virtue of their 3-2 victory over Team Ontario in the round robin.

Team Pacific were tops in Pool B with a record of 2-0-2. Team Atlantic qualified for the semi-finals as the second place team in the pool with a 3-1-0 record. With both teams tied at 6 points apiece, Team Pacific gets the top spot as they defeated Atlantic in the round robin.

Team Pacific will face Team Ontario at the Enmax Centre at 7:30pm MT on Monday, January 3. The other semi-final will see another all Canadian match-up as Team West takes on Team Atlantic at 7:30 pm MT at Nicolas Sheran Arena.

The winners of the two semi-finals will have a chance at gold as they face off Tuesday, January 4 at the Enmax Centre in the championship game at 8:00pm MT. TSN will televise the gold medal game on a tape delay basis, which will be aired on Wednesday, Jan. 5 at 8:00pm ET / 6:00pm MT.

The losers of the two semi-final games will play for bronze at 3:00pm MT on Tuesday, January 4 at the Enmax Centre.

In the seeding round, USA will play Finland for 5th, the Czech Republic will play Slovakia for 7th, and Team Germany faces Team Quebec for 9th place.

The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge runs from December 29 – January 4 in Lethbridge, Alberta. The tournament is made up of five Canadian regional teams and five international teams.