USA, Russia, Sweden Win — Canada Dominating After 2 Periods

By: Jeff Little • December 27th, 2008

Few surprises emerged during the first day of competition at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa. Russia beat Latvia in the opening contest, 4 – 1, with Russian outshooting Latvia 44 – 15. Perhaps the only surprise in that game was that the Russian top line, Nikita Filatov, Evgeni Grachev, and Dmitri Kugryshev, was held scoreless, despite creating numerous chances.

In the 3:30 contest, the US had no trouble with Germany, prevailing 8 – 2 behind 2 goal performances from both Drayson Bowman and James van Riemsdyk. The USA amassed 46 shots on goal against the beleaguered German squad.
In other action, Sweden started off with a 3 – 1 victory over Finland. In progress at the moment, the favored Canadian team is having no difficulty with the Czech Republic, leading 5 -0 after two periods of play.

About

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A native of the SF Bay Area, my first exposure to hockey was the SF/Oakland/California Golden Seals, including Charlie Finley and the white skates. Fast forward to the late 1980's when Gretzky and the Kings came up to the Bay Area for an exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, for which we had glass seats. I was at the first San Jose Sharks game in the Cow Palace, and followed them for their first few pathetic years, before moving to Columbus in 1994. I attended the first pro-NHL rally downtown, and have been a season ticket holder since Day 1, wife & I are active in the Jacket Backers, and son is an avid fan as well. I cover the Jackets for Inside Hockey, and contribute regularly to a variety of hockey sites. I maintain contact with the Jackets organization, and like to dig into stories, bringing a fresh, and sometimes irreverent perspective to hockey.

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