Relief flooded the United States locker room Saturday after its 2-1 victory over Switzerland in the Americans’ second game of the World Junior Hockey Championships. Not only had the hosts withstood a tenacious, defensive-minded foe to improve to 2-0 in the tournament, there was good news on the injury front.
With nine minutes remaining in the second period, American defenseman Cole Hutson was stretchered off the Grand Casino Arena ice after being hit up high on the left side with a Swiss shot from the point.
The 19-year old Boston University student dropped between the circles in his own zone and didn’t initially move as medical personnel rushed to him. The stretcher was wheeled onto the ice less than a minute after play ceased.
Hutson, a force at even strength and on the power play and penalty kill, moved his legs before being strapped to a back board. He received applause from an announced crowd of 14,306.
American coach Bob Motzko announced postgame that Hutson had showered upon his return from the hospital. Motzko said he didn’t have more information other than specifying that Hutson wasn’t hit in the head, as it appeared on video replays.
“That was a scary situation, but we have a close group of guys and they responded,” said Motzko, whose team received second-period goals from Brodie Ziemer and Will Zellers and eight saves from Nicholas Kempf. “He’s back with us, and we’ll know more in the morning.”
Said Zellers: “Cole’s our best player, hands down. He takes over games. And seeing him go down like that, we knew we had to play for him. You have to push it to the side and be a pro. We had an intense hockey game to win.”
The Americans were snakebit during the first period, failing to score on a half dozen prime chances.
Motzko pointed out that it was Switzerland the U.S. had to beat in the World Championship finals last year.
“We saw on film that the Swiss had a great game plan, and we knew we were in for a tough game,” the coach said. “They’re aggressive and hard and the game turned into… one of those games you have to play to the end. We didn’t blink, and I give our guys a ton of credit.”
The U.S. opened the scoring a minute into the second period after defenseman Chase Reid entered the zone on the right sideboards and fed a skating James Hagens in the center of the ice. Hagens charged down the slot and left a drop pass for Ziemer, who ripped the period’s first shot past a lunging defender, over goaltender Christian Kirsch’s blocker and under the crossbar.
“I called for it and got a nice drop pass and wanted to really step into that one,” Ziemer said. “It was nice to break through there… they box out really well around the net.”
Switzerland scored less than two minutes after Hutson’s injury, Basile Sansonnens firing a shot from center point and over the glove of a screened Kempf. The backstop rebounded on the next shift, however, denying a Swiss breakaway.
“It’s tough on any team when you have one of your teammates go down,” Hagens said. “It’s a shock emotionally, but you have to make sure you wind things back in.”
On the deciding play, Zellers swung wide left around defender Gian Meier and wristed the puck from the bottom of the circle and in off Kirsch. It was the third goal of the tournament for Zellers, a University of North Dakota student and a late addition to the pool from which American players were recently selected.
“I saw him go down a little early, and I had a little bit of a window,” Zellers said. “I ripped it (near) his ear because no one likes to get into the head. I thought I’d fire it there and see what happened. Then I kind of blacked out.”
Kirsch, 6-feet-4, plays for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League and was outstanding under consistent pressure while making 12 saves.
The Swiss produced several close calls in the U.S. end as the third period wound down. They were outshot, 18-13, during the game, which ended with the teams on their respective blue lines for the playing of the Star Spangled Banner and a handshake line.
The U.S. next plays Monday when it faces Slovakia at 5 p.m. at Grand Casino Arena. A Tuesday meeting against formidable Sweden concludes group play for the Americans.
The tournament format includes four games of pool play for each team with the top four in each pool advancing to single-elimination quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals and final.
Briefly
Ziemer was announced as the game’s best American player… The U.S. is 26-0-2 against the Swiss at the WJC. … Empty seats liberally dotted the arena’s lower bowl and a generous guess at actual attendance might have been 10,000. … Members of St. Paul’s first-year consolidated boys high school hockey team served as shovel-wielding ice cleaners during time outs in the action. … Scratched for the U.S. after playing in Game 1 against Germany were forward Shane Vansaghi, goaltender Brady Knowling and defenseman Dakoda Rheaunme-Mullen. The latter, who plays for the University of Michigan, is the son of former Canadian women’s goaltender Manon Rheaume, who won a 1998 Olympic silver medal, played five seasons in men’s pro leagues and appeared in two NHL exhibition games for the Tampa Bay Lightning. … U.S. forward Max Plante is the son of former Minnesota-Duluth star and Cloquet native Derek Plante, who played 450 NHL games as well as having pro stints in Germany, Switzerland and Japan. He’s now a Chicago Blackhawks assistant. … Hockey Canada apologized to Friday’s Czechia opponents after the Canadians’ Group B victory. Canada’s players skated off the ice without shaking hands following a testy contest. … The Canadians, by virtue of their fifth-place finish at last year’s WJC, have been assigned a locker room in Ridder Arena, home of the Gophers’ women’s team. Players and coaches must trek out of adjacent 3M Arena at Mariucci, where Group B games are held, through a tunnel connecting the facilities and across the Ridder ice. … Saturday night’s referees were Czech and Canadian and the linesmen Canadian and Finnish.
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