Eurolanche

Avs on WC (5.): United States of Avalanche

Totally 4 games were scheduled on Tuesday at the World Championship in Sweden and Finland. The members of the Colorado Avalanche organization showed solid performances in all of them. Firstly, Lake Erie Monsters defenseman Thomas Pock gained one assist for Austria in the important duel against Latvia. Pock played slightly over 21 minutes and had one shot on the net. Austria won 6:3 in the key game. Both teams are candidates on the last place in a group. The last-placed team will be relegated to the B Division of the World Championship next year. Pock has 2 points, both for assists, in 3 games and his ice time is at the top of entire team.

The game between Slovenia and Denmark had a similar importance as the previous one. Denmark  beat Slovenia 3:2 in the overtime, while Denver Cutthroats and Lake Erie Monsters defensemen Markus Lauridsen had an assist and contributed to a win. He picked up just 1 point for an assist in three games so far. Both, Denmark and Austria, have avoided the last place thanks tonight´s wins. There are still remaining at least 4 games for each team in the preliminary round. One group consists of 8 teams, top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs. We do not expect Austrian´s and Denmark´s promotion, so the final ranking at the places between 5^th and 7^th place would be a success for them. As I mentioned earlier, the 8^th spot guarantees a relegation to the 2^nd-tier category.

Now I am going to explain you the title of my story. Paul Stastny scored 2 goals; Matt Hunwick had 1 goal while Aaron Palushaj assisted him on it. Finally, USA scored 3 goals against Russia, so it was all about the Colorado Avalanche´s contribution to this game. The United States of Avalanche. Stastny was chosen for the player of the game for Team USA for the second time at the tournament, but at the end the USA lost 3:5. 

Stastny has 5 points for 2 goals and 3 assists in just 3 games. The USA captain has the highest success on the faceoffs amongst all skaters. Stastny is ranked on 4^th place in the scoring race. In the same number of games, Hunwick collected 2 points for 2 goals, Palushaj picked up 1 goal and 1 assist and finally Erik Johnson has 2 goals and 1 assists in his individual stats. Semyon Varlamov was not on the Russian roster. He is not injured, just day off.

After surprising loss to Switzerland, Canada needed to win against Norway today. They scored 4 goals in the first period and added 3 more for the final winning score 7:1. Matt Duchene scored the third goal of the game and had one assist later in the period. 

Ryan O´Reilly collected his first point of the tournament when he assisted on the same goal as Duchene. Matt scored 3 goals and added 1 assist in 3 games at the tournament and was named the best player of the game for Team Canada today. Like for Stastny, also for him it was second time when he got the honor.

Wednesday´s schedule includes following games and the Avalanche players in the action:

Austria (Pock) – Germany

Slovenia – Switzerland

USA (Johnson, Hunwick, Palushaj, Stastny) – Finland

Norway (Holos) – Sweden (Landeskog)

Sources of all photos: IIHF.com