USA, Borgen Face Russia in World Juniors
Team USA, featuring Buffalo Sabres prospect Will Borgen, faces Russia on Monday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championships.
The United States opened the preliminary round with a huge 4-2 victory over Team Canada on December 26. They then fell to Sweden 1-0 two days later but came out with a commanding 10-1 victory over Switzerland on December 30.
The Americans closed out the preliminary round with a 4-1 win over Denmark.
They faced the Czech Republic in quarterfinal action on Saturday and came out on top 7-0.
Nick Schmaltz opened the scoring just over five minutes in to give the Americans a 1-0 lead. About ten minutes later, Christian Dvorak upped the lead to two.
Auston Matthews then scored twice in the second, with Scott Eansor adding a shorthanded tally, and the Americans were up 5-0 after forty minutes.
Borgen had an assist on Matthews’ first goal of the night, scored at the 4:15 mark of the second period.
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Matthews would complete the hat trick, with Alex DeBrincat also adding one in the third as Team USA won 7-0.
Through five games in the tournament, the Buffalo Sabres prospect Borgen has registered two assists and is a plus-5. He also has registered five shots on goal.
That’s not bad for a defenseman, and not bad for a kid who was initially considered a long-shot to make the team. Borgen survived multiple cuts to make the team that headed to Finland, then survived another cut once abroad to stay on the team for the tournament.
Borgen’s two points are tied for second among American defensemen at the World Juniors; only captain Zach Werenski has more, with seven (2-5) in five games.
Alongside Borgen, Louis Belpedio (1-1) and Brandon Carlo (1-1) also each have two points in the 2016 IIHF World Juniors as blueliners for Team USA.
Forward Matthew Tkachuk leads the Americans with eight points (2-6) in the tournament; Werenski and Colin White (3-4) are second with seven points each.
Next up for Team USA is a battle with the Russians this afternoon at 1 p.m. You can catch the game live on NHL Network.
Ivan Provorov and Yegor Korshkov are the top players for Russia, each with six points in five games this tournament. Maxim Lazarev, Vladislav Kamenev and Artur Lauta each have five points in as many games.
The Russians defeated Denmark 4-3 in the quarterfinal, narrowly winning to make it to the next round of the World Juniors.
While the USA/Russia game comes in the afternoon, IIHF World Juniors action begins early this morning as Sweden and Finland face off in the other semifinal matchup.
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The winners of Monday’s games will go on to play for the World Juniors gold medal on Tuesday, while the losers play for bronze.
Could Will Borgen become the third Sabres player in a row to score the tournament-winning goal for his team at the World Juniors? Rasmus Ristolainen and Sam Reinhart did it the past two years for Finland and Canada, respectively; now it’s Borgen’s time to shine.