U18: U18 WJC Division 1A, Nice, France

[Belizarius]

Nice, France
With :
Norway
Latvia
Belarus
France
Italy
Kazakhstan

1st day :
*Latvia 5-2 Kazakhstan
Latvia won with 4 goals in 3 minutes in the 3rd. Kazakhstan was the better team for 40 minutes. Great game by Koshelev and Asetov. Locans with 2G, 1A for Latvia.

*Norway 5-4 Belarus (shootout)
Norway wasted a 4-2 lead in the 3rd. Ronnild then went 4/4 during the shootout and Norway escaped with 2 pts.
Great game by d-men Goncharov (2 goals) and Falkovski (2A). Norway, Bull was excellent in D, Ronnild physical, Hoff OK.

*France 5-3 Italy
Italy stroke first with a 2-0 lead, but France came back after a timeout to erase the lead. D-man Montenoise had 2 goals, as well as forward Coulaud.

In attendance, I saw several NHL scouts including STL, MTL, PHI, and TB.
Somebody from the crew told me 6 were there yesterday and 12 to 15 would be there this week.

Click to read more...

 

[Exarz]

Which players are interesting from an NHL perspective?

 

[Namejs]

Which players are interesting from an NHL perspective?

As for the Latvian team, there are no potential 1st rounders. A few of them (Balcers, Locāns, Dzierkals and a couple of others) might get picked in the CHL import draft, which is how a lot of Latvian junior players try to get noticed in North America.

 

[IIHFjerseycollector]

lets go italia.

the top 2 from this group advance correct?

 

[SoundAndFury]

Which players are interesting from an NHL perspective?

Hoff is kind of the obvious one, a biggest star of the tournament. Other than that, Belarus has a few young and huge Ds with some skill, Falkovsky being the best one at this point. Same goes for Hugo Gallet from France, he's 16 but 192 cm and has already played for French U20 team. Semyon Koshelev is pretty irrelevant from the NHL perspective but KHL fans will surely be watching him for years.

Generally, I think NHL scouts are there to see promising U17 kids to watch when their draft year comes. They already know everything there is to know about kids in their draft year at this level. However, for a casual fan like myself that's a first chance to take a look at all the kids, even the best known ones.

the top 2 from this group advance correct?

Just one.

 

[Sakaarnis]

Thanks to Norway loosing to Kazakhstan today, Latvia clinched promotion with a victory over Italy. Congrats!

 

[Kiraly]

Hungary also won promotion on the fourth day and will join this group next year.

 

[airbus1094]

It looks like Italy will most likely be the one relegated. I've been really excited by Hungary's recent progress on all levels, it'll be interesting to see how they fare against IA teams.

 

[Purple hippo]

It looks like Italy will most likely be the one relegated. I've been really excited by Hungary's recent progress on all levels, it'll be interesting to see how they fare against IA teams.

Italy is already relegated as France holds the tie-breaker. The only way Italy would of stayed up was if France held onto the lead yesterday and then they defeated the Belarussians.

 

[airbus1094]

Italy is already relegated as France holds the tie-breaker. The only way Italy would of stayed up was if France held onto the lead yesterday and then they defeated the Belarussians.

You're right, I keep on forgetting that it's not goal dif. that they look at first.

 

[Woodhouse]

If you're looking for archives, this YT user has multiple uploads from the tournament. For example:

 

[AwesomePanthers]

Unbelivable that we didn't get promoted. I don't even know what happen vs Kazakhstan. Must really suck for the guys..

 

[SoundAndFury]

Unbelivable that we didn't get promoted. I don't even know what happen vs Kazakhstan. Must really suck for the guys..

Why is it unbelievable? It was 50/50 between you and Latvia from the get go. Actually, it wasn't even 50/50, last time Latvians played in D1 two years in a row was 08-09 meanwhile Norway has never ever won the D1A and this group of players really wasn't significantly better than earlier ones.

 

[AwesomePanthers]

Why is it unbelievable? It was 50/50 between you and Latvia from the get go. Actually, it wasn't even 50/50, last time Latvians played in D1 two years in a row was 08-09 meanwhile Norway has never ever won the D1A and this group of players really wasn't significantly better than earlier ones.

Because we beat Latvia, but lost to a terrible team that we should beat 99 out of 100 times. I guess this was the 100th time..

To me it looks like we were much better than Latvia this tournament, but had an off day..

 

[Namejs]

Because we beat Latvia, but lost to a terrible team that we should beat 99 out of 100 times. I guess this was the 100th time..

To me it looks like we were much better than Latvia this tournament, but had an off day..

You do realize that Latvia had nothing to play for in the last game, right? We won the tournament 3 days ago.

Also, you couldn't beat Estonia 99 out of 100 times. Get a grip on reality.

 

[AwesomePanthers]

You do realize that Latvia had nothing to play for in the last game, right? We won the tournament 3 days ago.

Also, you couldn't beat Estonia 99 out of 100 times. Get a grip on reality.

The only reason why Latvia is going up is because we lost to freakin' Kazakhstan. Realize that.. a team we never should lose to..

 

[Namejs]

The only reason why Latvia is going up is because we lost to freakin' Kazakhstan. Realize that.. a team we never should lose to..

I am pretty sure you know absolutely nothing about hockey in Kazakhstan.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I am pretty sure you know absolutely nothing about hockey in Kazakhstan.

This.

Not sure where did you get the idea you would beat Kazakhs 99 times out of 100. They are a pretty solid team meanwhile was really nothing to write home about. You got outshot by both Belarus and Kazakhstan and still managed to get 2 points out of those matches. Seems fair enough to me.

 

[Belizarius]

The only reason why Latvia is going up is because we lost to freakin' Kazakhstan. Realize that.. a team we never should lose to..

In fact, Kazakhstan totally dominated the game and had a huge tournament.

I covered the tournament for a website and watched ALL the games.

Kazakhstan gave away the game vs Latvia. They led 2-1 after 2 and just had a 5 minutes bad stretch. Latvia scored 4.
Kzakhstan corrected that and never had a bad game after that. They nearly were the best team in this tournament : great defense, good skills upfront and best forward, Koshelev.

Latvia won because they were the most consistent and the deepest team (and probably best GK).

Norway was lazy, undisciplined. They lost to KAZ, but also gave up a 4-2 lead vs Belarus, then lost a point by winning in shootout.

Overall, it was a great tournament.
Best players :
KAZ : Koshelev, Asetov
LAT : Razgals, Dzierkals, E. Jansons, Kivlenieks
BLR : Klyavzo, Falkovski, Goncharov
FRA : Guillaume
NOR : Hoff, Lindstad, Bull, Marthinsen, Ronnild

 

[OscarsCards]

Latvians lost only two periods in tournament, first against Kazakhstan and third against Norway. Kazaks played very well, because they was underrated. Latvia - Belarus and Norway was the key teams, on Kazaks wasn't so big pressure.

Team Latvia players in this WCh wasn't skillful as others, the main advantage was the experienced coaching staff who built the team.

 

[Belizarius]

Latvians lost only two periods in tournament, first against Kazakhstan and third against Norway. Kazaks played very well, because they was underrated. Latvia - Belarus and Norway was the key teams, on Kazaks wasn't so big pressure.

Team Latvia players in this WCh wasn't skillful as others, the main advantage was the experienced coaching staff who built the team.

I'll say depth as well. It was a team game and all lines contributed.

 

[Namejs]

I'll say depth as well. It was a team game and all lines contributed.

Which ironically doesn't really do any good for the national hockey program.

Having a bunch of decent guys at the junior level is pointless, if there are no genuinely talented prospects, who could play leading roles in CHL or at least MHL/other European top junior leagues.

The only positive from this is that we'll have a chance to get some experience at the Elite level and probably get more exposure to our players in terms of scouting next year.

As far as I know, our '97s and '98s are a bit better than our '96 generation. Edgars Treijs was a potential 1st rounder, but he seems to have chosen to become a Swedish citizen, which sucks. :/

 

[Belizarius]

Finland often wins with team game, why not Latvia

I forgot Locans, who was good as well.