WORLD JUNIOR NOTES: Early start for Finland and Germany; Latvia tough & More Latest News Here – Up Jobs

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It was an early wakeup call for Finland and Germany at the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

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With all four quarter-final games scheduled to be played on the same day, Finland and Germany earned the 10 a.m., time slot, which had players and coaches up and out of bed early.

“It was maybe five or six years ago when I played that early,” said 19-year-old German forward Bennet Rossmy, who had two goals in a 5-2 loss to Finland. “It’s hard, but it was the same for them, too.

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“I like to come pretty early to the locker room and I went to bed at 8 p.m., last night. Then I was up at 6 a.m., had breakfast, walked over to the rink to tape my sticks and get ready.”

Most players had to go back to their minor hockey days to recall the last time they played a game as early. During the preliminary round, the early start time was noon, but with an extra elimination game Wednesday, the schedule had to be extended.

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Following the Finland-Germany encounter, Sweden and Latvia dropped the puck on their quarter-final just after 1:30 p.m.; Canada and Switzerland was scheduled for 5 p.m., while the United States and Czechia closed out the day with an 8:30 p.m. start time.

“It was pretty hard, we woke up at 5:15 a.m., and then went to the gym to get our bodies moving,” said Finland forward Roby Jarventie, who had two goals and two assists in the win. “The first period was a little bit tough, but after that I felt good.”

The key for the players was to have a good meal early in the morning in order to have energy for the contest.

“We were well prepared for the game, even though it was early in the morning,” Finland coach Antti Pennanen said. “The kids were eating pasta at 8 a.m., and it was the first time ever for them to have pasta at breakfast.”

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LOOKING TOWARDS REMATCH

By winning its quarter-final, Finland were looking at a rematch against Canada in the semifinal on Friday.

Barring a major upset in the other three quarter-finals, Sweden, Canada and the United States were expected to go through, and the teams would be re-seeded for the next round of the tournament.

Canada would be ranked first on goal difference in the preliminary round, the United States second, Sweden third and Finland fourth.

Finland lost 6-3 to Canada in its final Group A game, setting up their quarter-final matchup with Germany on Wednesday.

“Obviously, they have a great, great team and they’re a tough team to play against,” said Jarventie. “But I think when we play our best, we can fight against them. We had our moments against them, but they were better last time, and I hope we get a chance to play them.”

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Finland came into the tournament as a gold-medal contender. They have been improving since the start of the tournament and their power play has been among the best of any team.

Finland scored four power-play goals in the win against Germany to get into the semifinal.

“We’re excited to play them again,” said Pennanen. “We know we’re going to be the underdogs and the pressure will be on Canada’s shoulders. But our players say they are confident, they can beat Canada, so we’ll see how it’s going. They learned a lot when they played against them in the first game.”

LATVIAN PRIDE

For a team brought in as a fill-in at the 10-team tournament, Latvia turned heads with its performance at the World Junior Championship.

On Wednesday, Latvia gave Sweden all they could handle in a 2-1 quarter-final loss.

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Sweden captain Emil Andrae scored the game winner midway through the third period with a seeing-eye point shot through traffic.

“I think we gave it all that we had and maybe with a little luck we would have been able to win this game,” said Latvia goaltender Bruno Bruveris. “We came here and everybody was laughing at us and we wanted to show what we could do, and I think we did that.”

Latvia were added to the tournament after Russia was expelled due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Latvia came in and made a strong account of themselves, pushing Canada and Slovakia before defeating Czechia in its final preliminary round game.

The win against Czechia snapped a 0-27 losing streak in the preliminary round and put Latvia in the quarter-finals for the first time in its history.

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“I think we played well, but if we would have been able to do a little bit more we could have made even more history,” said Latvia captain Ralfs Bergmanis. “I think we surprised some people, but that was our plan, to make the quarter-finals. I think we could have gone to the semifinals, too.

“We played hard and we can be proud of that, but it’s disappointing we weren’t able to win this game, but that’s hockey.”

Latvia was bolstered by its travelling fans, who made as much noise as possible through all its games.

“Our fans are the best fans in the world,” Bruveris said. “They were the sixth player for our team on the ice and they helped us a lot.”

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On Twitter: @DerekVanDiest