The start of the 2005 championship is fast approaching. On December 25, the Christmas gift will be unwrapped but there are some exhibition games before that.

The US team will defend the gold at home with the tournament being held in Grand Folks ND (and Thief River Falls, MN).

Group A: USA, Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Belarus

Group B: Canada, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany

For American fans, here is the TV schedule on ESPN2. If USA plays for the gold medal, the game will be on ESPN.

Sat., Dec. 25 USA vs. Russia 7:30 p.m.
Mon., Dec. 27 USA vs. Switzerland 8:00 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 29 USA vs. Belarus 8:30 p.m. (tape-delayed)

Zeno, thanks for the info!! Televised hockey??? I will definitely take it!!!!! Again, thanks for the heads up.

Puckman, you have ESPN2? I thought you didn't have that channel.

For Team Canada games, it's on TSN and RDS of course. They are even showing past World Junior games this week. With the past Stanley Cup games, they are turning into the History channel.

You must have missed the happy announcement that the cable company added ESPN2 -- just for puckman! Well, not just for him, but...

Thanks for the info on the telecasts.

Zeno, yes indeedy. We expanded basic cable people in Spokane were finally allowed to have ESPN-2, and guess what else Comcast gives me for a Christmas present?? If you said a rate increase, in January, you win!!!! Yep, and that sucks!

every year i look forward to that tournament.. it is one of the best showcases for hockey.
Also, i put it along with the Olympics for best hockey played (Olympics with NHL players of course).

Unfortunately i don't really have a team to cheer for, but i do enjoy the hockey. This year the US, Canada and even Russia and Finland are all good contenders.

Bruins' Patrice Bergeron (who is playing with Providence in the AHL) scored two goals in each of the two exhibition games this week. Canada won 6-0 vs Finland and 5-0 vs Switzerland.

Bergeron and Sidney Crosby play on the same line.

This afternoon at 5:30pm, pst, I am going to be in front of my tv on ESPN-2, to watch the U.S. against Russia. I can't wait. Go USA!!!!!!

hmm... this afternoon? The tournament starts December 25. You can't unwrap your present before Christmas. wink

I did not notice when I copied them, but the times in the schedule are central time.

Wow Zeno, my sports section of my paper really blew it, because they printed hockey on this afternoon at 5:30pm, world juniors. They really blew it!!!! frown

The Los Angeles Daily News made the same mistake. Of course, this is the paper that spelled the mayor's name "Hhan" earlier in the week (rather than the correct Hahn) so they're getting better. In reality, ESPN2 (which puckman received as an early Xmas present) will be airing--and reairing--"3" pretty much all day today.

~Adam

Zeno, today is the 25th, so the hockey game is on today, right?? I am so looking forward to this, you have no idea. This boy is in need of therapy. Hockey therapy. eek!

Yes it starts today. Open the presents!

I was reading in a newspaper's sports section a translated article from the New York Times about the Grand Forks arena. They call it the Taj Mahal of hockey, with 48 luxury suites and 11,400 leather seats.

Here is the TV schedule on TSN. They show the USA games against Russia and Switzerland the day after, in the afternoon. They even show USA-Czech Republic which is not on the ESPN2 schedule.

Saturday, Dec. 25 Canada vs. Slovakia 4pm et

Sunday,Dec.26 Canada vs. Slovakia (encore) 8am et
Russia vs. U.S.A. 2pm et

Monday, Dec. 27 Canada vs. Sweden 4pm et

Tuesday,Dec.28 Canada vs.Sweden(Encore) 3:30am et
U.S.A. vs. Switzerland 1pm et
Canada vs. Sweden (Encore) 3pm et
Canada vs. Germany 7:30pm et

Wednesday,Dec.29 Canada vs.Germany(Encore)Midn.et
Canada vs. Germany (Encore) 1pm et
Czech Republic vs. Switzerland 4:25pm et
Belarus vs. U.S.A. 8:30pm et

Thursday, Dec. 30 Canada vs. Finland 4pm et
U.S.A. vs. Czech Republic 8:30pm et

Friday,Dec.31 Canada vs. Finland(Encore) Midnight

Senseless drive-by linkings.

Google News for World Junior Championship hockey

Grand Forks Herald special section

This is from 2002, but it contains links to current pages:

I hope Lars is wearing all his equipment.

Puckman1 said: "Televised hockey???"

I was in Fargo one Saturday in February, 1994. IIRC, the ND high school hockey championships were televised. Is February too early for championship games?

Is the televised hockey some sort of regional thing? I was at my brother's house. Unlike me, my brother is not too cheap to have cable. I turned on ESPN2, and they were showing these huge guys on the beach picking up beer kegs and concrete weights. I didn't see any hockey. Another channel was showing hockey from Russia, but there was nothing junior about it.

[ December 25, 2004, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Well I am loving this. Even though the US is tied at 3 with Russia, but the boys in the red white and blue started the period strongly, but ended the period questionably. US needs to keep throwing the body around, and watch the defense. Get back to letting Russia give the puck away or turnovers. Go USA!!!!! I forgot to add, Bourque's son is damn hot! wink

[ December 25, 2004, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

Twin58, I don't know if it's regional coverage. I read it was on ESPN2 at 7:30 pm central. Maybe it was the Russia thing you said since it was USA vs Russia...

Juniors is for under 20. I don't know about US high school hockey so can't help you with that, but February sounds a bit early for season championship - it would be cold enough in March.

I have a cousin who did some research/study at university in Fargo.

Canada beat Slovakia 7-3 in their first game of the tournament. They took the lead 4-0 on 2 goals by Patrice Bergeron and 2 power play goals by Sidney Crosby; a productive line! That was the score at mid-game. With about two minutes left in the game Canada lead 5-3. MacArthur got a goal and he scored again on a penalty shot with 7 seconds remaining.

Wow.What a great opening game. The US was outplayed for the better part of the third period, but US goalie Montoya was huge here. He was unbeatable, so the US wins 5-4 in their opener!! Congrats to Canada on their opening win as well. I wonder how big is this arena in Grand Forks? Maybe 10,000? It looked a tad bit smaller than the Spokane Arena, but the crowd was really raucous in the third. Way to go USA.

I didn't get to see the first period but saw a lot of the last two. It was nice to see some hockey on TV for a change. wink

I was so into this hockey game. I am assuming these kids are say 16-20ish? The calibre of the hockey I thought was very high, not quite as high as the NHL, but quite a few steps up from my Spokane Chiefs, for sure! GO USA! Can't wait for Monday nights game against Switzerland.

Oh, I was back home by that time. I had the tube on at about 5 p.m. EST. That's when the strongmen were on ESPN2. The hockey game showing at that time was World vs. Russia, played somewhere in Russia; I assume it was Moscow. It was a professional rink, as there were advertising logos beneath the surface of ice. Russia won that one 6-5.

Edited to add:

There's a photo gallery at the Grand Forks Herald website. Go to:

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/10499976.htm

and, beneath the picture, click on "More photos..." It's all messed up right now, though.

[ December 26, 2004, 02:30 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

I watched last night and loved it. It's real good hockey.

The American team looked like ordinary college boys. (Well, maybe Drew Stafford is a little hotter.) But is it just me...or did most of the Russian team look like Bel Ami models? That Eastern European influence, I guess.

And per the Grand Forks Herald, there were 9274 in attendance at the USA-Russia game last night. There's a smaller arena with the same name, Ralph Engelstad Arena, across the river in Thief River Falls, MN, that's also being used for the torunament; it holds 3600.

Oh, that was Igor Larionov's retirement commemorative game. It's been playing several times here, in reruns, mostly on Comcast SportsNet. And we think that they went the cheapie route and had the commentators here in the US, remarking on the play as they watched the video. It saves on airfare to Moscow.....

Ted, thank you for the attendance stats on the arena in G.F. Anyone know why they are playing there? I am really curious...thanks.

That's the one. I saw the Comcast logo in the upper RH corner, but I thought that was there just because it was the local cable provider.

Mysterious Russian hockey game case closed!
I was starting to build another false theory: that it could be the Spengler Cup from Davos. There was a game with a Russian team this afternoon on Sportsnet.

I read Comcast will be airing the USA Juniors games again in January. The first period of the USA-Russia game has 6 goals scored. It will probably be the most intersting game - not sure of the excitement vs Belarus and Switzerland.

I was reading the coverage in the Grand Forks Herald online. (I discovered then when I changed article, I didn't have the same set of photos as the original article linked).

In Thief River Falls, only small crowds the first day (it was Christmas). 533 for the first game Belarus/ Czech and 640 at the start of the evening game Germany/Finland. The attendance for the Canada game in Grand Forks Saturday was 7,540.

And they noted what was said about the arena. On RDS they said in one of the intermissions they would try to show us the arena. Arena with granite floor...!



[ December 26, 2004, 06:39 PM: Message edited by: Zeno ]

It must be at least semi-posh as that price for a 9,000 seat arena, I would think. The glimpses of the seats I saw looked quite cushy on the tushy indeed.

Hockeyfans, tonight at 6:00pm p.s.t., 9:00pm back east its the USA vs. Switzerland. Lets go Team USA!!!

I just went to the discussion board area of the Herald's website, and they have a poll going of who you think will win the junior championships. Canada is in the lead with 48%, followed by the US, second at 35%.

They don't say if a lot of Canadians voted on that poll!

Canada won 8-1 over Sweden. First period ended in a 1-1 tie but after that it was Canada on top. Sweden got 17 shots on goal vs 46 for Canada.

And now for the public service announcement:
USAHockey.com will feature a live audio stream of all remaining U.S. games in the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship

Thats cool. Congrats again to Canada on their rather one sided win over Sweden! Now getting very, ready for USA vs. Switzerland at 6:00pm.(pst) USA, USA, USA!!!!!

I managed to see most of Canada's 8-1 blow-out over Sweden this afternoon. The two Calgary Hitmen on the Canadian squad (Andrew Ladd and Ryan Getzlaff) both scored today. Sweden actually had a two-man advantage on three separate occasions during the game but failed to score on any of them. Love those royal-blue and yellow Swedish uniforms! Their goaltender Chris Heino-Lindberg (a Montréal draft pick) was replaced after two periods. I wondered about his unusual mask with the image of a face I didn't recognize, but the announcer must have heard me because he identified it as that of Pelle Lindbergh, the Flyers' goaltender who died 20 years ago. Another Swedish player I learned about is Robert Nilsson, son of Kent Nilsson who played for the Flames back in the 80s. In fact Robert was born here during his father's stint with the Flames, and later moved to Sweden.

USA-2, Switzerland 0, after two periods. So far the US has showed little of the emotional spark they had against Russia. Occasional glimpses of high energy, but overall not quite the calibre of the Russians, still they are slowly wearing Switzerland down here, who don't appear to have to many weapons.

Whew... the Swiss gave us a scare, eh? What an exciting start to the third period.

I guess Montoya has just had two bad games? I haven't been impressed yet. Robbie Schremp on the other hand has been the guy that's impressed me most (maybe it's because he's hot?).

Regardless, looking forward to the game Wednesday. Glad to have some hockey...

Sooner, I have seen both the Russian game and the Swiss game. IN my opinion it was Montoya who was the biggest reason US beat Russia 5-4. Now last night for 2 periods, neither Tobler the Swiss goalie, nor Montoya was that stellar, but neither was the play of the Americans and their defense. What I was really impressed by was that each time the Swiss team would score, the Yanks cranked it up a notch or two as they had too. But overall, we played somewhat sloppy. A victory though and we will take it. US will have to play like they did against the Russians against Belarus, and that means with emotion, and with the body, and to create turnovers from Belarus. GO USA!!!!

[ December 28, 2004, 07:33 AM: Message edited by: puckman1 ]

Good point about Saturday night and Montoya. He was real strong in the 3rd... unlike last night. But the team as a whole didn't look nearly as good. But at least it provided for an entertaining game. The Swiss looked like someone we really shoulda blown out.

I can't wait for tomorrow night...

My hope is that the US does not take Belarus too lightly like they may have with the Swiss for about half of that game. Belarus just got stung, and they may be on the rebound. Game on tonight, ESPN-2 at 6:30pm, west coast time. By the way, I have been really really impressed with the announcers, and commentators here for ESPN-2. The one guy, you can telll is from the Boston area. wink Incidentally, the US is 2-0 in play, if I am not mistaken. An article in my sports section this morning listed them as 2-1. Not!

I was just reading the Grand Forks Herald on line and a story about how the US must play better/smarter defense, of which I couldn't agree more. US Coach says 8 goals in 2 games is too much. I would agree. They feel Montoya has played well generally, but somewhat inconsistent. In fact they may start backup goalie Cory Schneider tonight who they say has looked good in practice, but this would be a tough call, as Montoya is unbeaten in World Junior play. All I can say is lets go USA!! Game on in 45 minutes hockey fans.

Inconsistent... that was the word I was looking for. And indeed, Montoya is sitting.

Maybe your newspaper knows all... this is pretty bad. Lots of hockey left, but being down 3-1 doesn't make me happy at all.

This is the worst game I have seen US play so far. They started out pretty good with Russia, looked vulnerable against the Swiss, and came out as flat as a pancake against Belarus. No life at all. Bad Coaching decision in my opinion to start with backup goaltender. If US wins this one, it will be the second miracle on ice, with the first one back in the 1980 winter olympics, of course. US needs to seriously wake up. :mad:

Absolutely horrid game for the U.S. Who deserved to lose this game. Its my opinion that they took Belarus far far to lightly, and unfortunately came out totally flat and unprepared for this competetion. Its my sincere hope that this is a huge wake up call for the Americans. It had better be!

A reply to a few of the questions that have been posed in some of the previous postings.

The North Dakota High School Hockey Tournament is always held the last week-end in February at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks. It's the first winter sport to wrap up the season in ND.

The Ralph Engelstad Arena seats 11,400.

I suspect (and have read) that Grand Forks was chosen as the sight for this years world jrs. for a couple of reasons. 1) it's proximity to Canada and the huge fan base there. 2)the amazing facilities in both GF and Thief River Falls (both financed by Ralph Engelstad. I'm sure it didn't hurt Grand Forks chances as an American sight that it's also the home to one of the premier college programs in the country.

sorry, I meant "site" not "sight" Uff da!!!

\"Can I get you anything to go with your sandwich?\"

Caption: "Finland's Anssi Tieranta upends Sweden's Linus Videll with a check in Wednesday's World Juniors Championship game."

From the slideshow accompanying the article IN THIEF RIVER FALLS: Not Finnish-ed just yet

Another link:

MS JUNIORÙ

[ December 30, 2004, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Just when I thought things couldn't get much wrose for the Yanks, they did. Another loss, this time to the Czechs. The Americans have dug themselves a deep hole, one that they may not make it out of. Its beginning to look like the US Team this year is a pretender, NOT a contender. frown

I was able to see a bit of the game between the US and the Czechs. Their goalie was terrific, making some smart gliding moves to block the net & he got some good movement by the Czech defenders around the net. As we've seen before, a hot goalie can really lift up an entire team.

~Adam

This afternoon at 5:30pm (pst) ESPN-2 is supposed to show the Sweden/US game. Its do or die time for the Yanks, who now must win 3 in a row to have any chance of retaking the 1st place position in their pool. They had better come out and play like they mean it, like the way they played the Russians, which to me, means throwing their bodies around and causing giveaways. I was reading the comments the other day from the US Coach who it seemed thought the US played quite well against the Czechs in our loss. Sorry Coach I disagree, they didn't play well enough to win, thats for sure. Anyways, it will be hockey therapy night again for me tonight. Lets GO USA!

USA just took a 6-2 lead so it looks good for them to move on and play Russia tomorrow night. It would be nice if they would show the medal round games whether the USA were playing or not, though.

Kessel's second goal of the game was spectacular.

If ever the U.S. needed a confidence builder going into tomorrow nights game against Russia, this was it! Early on the American defense looked sloppy at best, but the mistakes were corrected, Montoya looked really sharp, and the US blows out Sweden, 8-2. Memo to US Coach: make Kessel the Captain for tomorrow nights game. What an effort and a hat trick to boot!

Four teams left and three of them come from the same pool. Only Canada is left from its original pool; maybe they scored a lot because they had weaker opponents. I hope they have not become overconfident for the semifinal.

The Czech goalie (Schwarz) plays in the WHL. I searched on the net and he plays for Vancouver.

And on the discussion about the beautiful arena, the commentators on RDS said in the NHL the top one was in Minneapolis.