January 06, 2016
It’s early, but we have a leader in the clubhouse for best sports moment of 2016. Good luck trying to top Kasperi Kapanen’s golden goal to send the home fans into an absolute frenzy:
Finland captured the gold medal at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship on Tuesday, and the son of a former Flyer got to play hero. How about the future Philadelphia Flyers, though? Let’s do a quick check on all of the Flyers prospects, starting with the ones who advanced farthest in the tournament.
The reason that Kapanen’s heroics were necessary was Andrei Svetlakov’s game-tying goal in the final seconds, set up by none other than Ivan Provorov:
Ivan Provorov sets up tying goal with 6.9 seconds left in gold medal game https://t.co/XXIpBQIRGt pic.twitter.com/tH8PLXjNVL
— Sons of Penn (@SonsofPenn) January 5, 2016
It wasn’t the only important goal Provorov set up for the Russians. This was a good tournament for the Flyers’ top prospect, who finished with eight assists in seven games. Provorov was also a plus-2, which is notable because he seems to consistently do smaller things only visible when watching the game and looking past the box score.
Top 3 players of Russia in the tournament as selected by the coaches: Provorov (PHI), Kraskovskiy (WPG) and Kamenev (NSH).
— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) January 4, 2016
Radel Fazleev finished with a goal and two assists in seven games.
The Swedes managed fourth place, and Oskar Lindblom had a productive tournament for the second straight year with six points (3 G, 3 A). Here is his goal against Slovakia in the quarterfinals:
Felix Sandstrom got a surprise start in between the pipes for the bronze medal game, and he was lit up in an 8-3 loss to the Americans (USA, USA, USA!):
Oh, Canada. The pre-tourney favorites bowed out in disappointing fashion, falling 6-5 to the eventual winners in the quarterfinals. That game was an absolute barnburner, though. Travis Konecny (two points in five games) got the scoring underway:
#Flyers Travis Konecny opens the scoring for Team Canada over Finland. What a move. #WJC2016 pic.twitter.com/4YiOmJsKkj
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 2, 2016
Playing on the fourth line, Konecny didn’t score much but the undersized forward was one of Team Canada’s more physical players throughout the tournament.
Travis Sanheim only registered one point in the whole tournament, and he got crunched on the play:
What a nice play from #Flyers D prospect Travis Sanheim on Team Canada's tying goal. #WJC2016 pic.twitter.com/dpJdebirgP
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 2, 2016
David Kase managed just one point in five games, as the Czechs fell in the quarters to the Americans (USA, USA, USA!).
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
