From: glc39@booth.usask.ca (Glenn Chin)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: 1992 World Junior Hockey Championship (WJHC) : CANADA vs RUSSIA
Date: 1 Jan 1993 15:47:09 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


From: hlee@unixg.ubc.ca (Henry Lee)
Date: 29 Dec 1992 19:15:16 GMT

>CANADA 9 - RUSSIA 1    (Canada now 3W - 0L - 0T)
>
>I only saw the last couple of minutes of the game ...
>Geez, did I really see that score at the end?

In fairness to the Russians, they were playing without:

	Alexei Kovalev		(NY Rangers)
	Sergei Krivokrasov	(Chicago or IHL)
	Alexei Yashin(Ott)	(Europa(sp?) Cup)
	Andrei Nazarov(SJ)	(probably Europa Cup).

Due to the financial crisis experienced by the Russian hockey
federation, they sent Dynamo Moscow, which is the club team for Yashin
and Nazarov, to the richer Europa Cup.  Yashin and other Dynamo Moscow
players arrived on New Year's Eve to join the Russian junior team.

I also didn't see defenceman Boris Mironov(Win), brother of the Leafs'
Dimitri, in the game.  It's unlikely Mironov played in the Europa Cup,
since Mironov's club team was listed as CSKA for the NHL entry draft
last June.  Viktor Tikhonov said last summer that Mironov was the third
best CIS prospect eligible for the entry draft after Yashin and Lithuanian
Darius Kasparaitis.

Highly-touted 17-year-old prospect Victor Kozlov didn't stand out in the
game against Canada, and hasn't had a great tourney after four games.  He did
show some ability to control the play for short periods of time, using
his puck handling and 217-pound frame to his advantage.  He had one very
good chance to score in the game after beating a Canadian defenceman one-on-one,
but didn't put much on a 15-foot shot.  He doesn't appear to have much
speed.

The top Russian unit consisted of:

	Kozlov		Sergei Klimovich(Chi)	Alexander Cherbaev(SJ)

		Nikolai Semin		Sergei Gonchar(Was;thanks to StL)

			Nikolai Khabibulin(Win).

Kozlov was situated in front of the Canadian net on the power play.
Undoubtedly, Kozlov was supposed to provide a screen, but it's odd to see a
talented forward in that role on a Russian team, although he's bigger
than the prototypical Russian forward.  Cherbaev was the player of the
game for Russia, while Jason Dawe won the award for Canada.

Ottawa director of player personnel John Ferguson stated that he is
willing to listen to offers for the Senators' first pick in 1993.  He
made reference to Peter Forsberg whose NHL rights belong to the
Nordiques.  In my opinion, the Nords would be foolish to trade Forsberg
(in order to get Alexandre Daigle?), who showed the ability to dominate faceoffs
in addition to his great playmaking ability and good speed.  I would guess
Forsberg won at least 80% of his faceoffs against Canada.  In the same game,
Forsberg showed good upper body strength and strength on skates.
Furthermore, Forsberg's age fits into the Nords' age distribution of its
key players better than Daigle's.  The sight of Forsberg carrying the puck
through the neutral zone toward the Canadian end made me nervous.  He was
clearly the best player in the game.  Hockey analyst, Bob McKenzie, stated that
scouts rate Forsberg between Joe Sakic and Mike Ricci on the talent scale.

In Canada's 3-2 victory over Finland, Manny Legace was the story after
stopping 58 shots.  The combination of a strong Finnish team and a
Canadian team suffering a letdown after handing its archrival Russia (USSR,
CIS) its worst defeat ever at the WJHC resulted in Finland thoroughly
outplaying Canada.  Since this game wasn't televised, I have no other details.
I knew Finland would be tough because an r.s.h reader from Finland posted two
or three months back that their under-19 team delivered a lopsided win
over their Russian counterparts.

In the 5-2 victory by Canada over Germany on New Year's Day, Daigle saw very
little ice time.  Daigle is a defensive liability, but the amount of ice time
he and his wingers, Dawe and Martin Gendron, saw was so limited
that coach Perry Pearn must be unhappy about the performance of the
line.  The line, which was the number two power play line against Russia after
a neck or shoulder injury to Jeff Shantz, performed well against Russia;
they might have played themselves into disfavour against Finland.  The
two power play lines against Germany were:

	Paul Kariya-Chris Gratton-Martin LaPointe
and	Dean McAmmond-Shantz-Nathan Lafayette.

Shantz was the player of the game for Canada, although Lafayette played
a strong game.  Lafayette is a cousin of Rueben Mayes, the former
running back with the New Orleans Saints.

Kariya definitely sees the ice well; only his size will hold him back from
stardom in the NHL.  If the NHL doesn't send pros to the Lillehammer Games,
Kariya will likely play in the 1994 Olympics.  Kariya stated in an interview
that he chose the US college hockey route instead of major junior because he
needed time for physical development.  TSN stated that he weighs 156 pounds.

Canada now only has to win one of its two remaining games against
Japan on Saturday and Czech and Slovakia on Monday to win the gold medal.
18 members of the former Czechoslovakian team are from Czech and four
are from Slovakia.  This team is playing without Roman Hamrlik(TB) and
Robert Petrovicky(Har).

Glenn