World Junior Championship roundup: Bedard, Greig lift Canada past Latvia

Wednesday was the second day of the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is being held at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Day 2 games

Canada 5, Latvia 2 --Connor Bedard, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, had a goal and an assist to lead Canada in its first preliminary-round game in Group A.
Bedard made it 1-0 at 7:31 of the first period with a shot through the defense that got past Latvia goalie Patriks Berzins on the glove side.
"For me, it's been three months since I've been in a real game and it's good to get back out there," Bedard said. "It's always a lot of fun to play in front of fans and play for our country. It always feels good to score, especially that first one of the tournament. I think it's always exciting no matter who gets it."
Ridly Greig (Ottawa Senators) and William Dufour (New York Islanders) also had a goal and an assist each for Canada, and Anaheim Ducks prospect forward Mason McTavish had two assists. Sebastian Cossa (Detroit Red Wings) made 22 saves.
Rainers Darzins (2023 draft eligible) and Bogdans Hodass (2023 draft eligible) scored for Latvia. Berzins (2023 draft eligible) made 39 saves, including 17 in the first period.
"I feel good about this game, I'm proud of my teammates," Hodass said. "We gave 100 percent effort for each other, and we battled hard and it was definitely a tough game. The first period was one of the toughest periods of my life, but I thought we played pretty good."
Darzins tied it 1-1 at 18:06 when he cut to the middle on an individual rush and scored on Latvia's fourth shot of the game.
"We were doing everything right at that point -- zone time, managing the puck -- doing the little things," Canada coach Dave Cameron said. "I've been around this game long enough to know that you let your teams play and let them dictate the game by how they feel, not the score."
Lukas Cormier (Vegas Golden Knights) gave Canada a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal from the top of the left face-off circle at 11:23 of the second period.
Olen Zellweger (Anaheim Ducks) extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:17 with a point shot through traffic on the power play. Greig scored 59 seconds later at 17:16 on a breakaway to make it 4-1.
"The goals I let in (by Greig), I think I could have been more lucky," Berzins said. "But other than that, I'm happy with my game and I'm happy with the team as well. If we could play the whole game like we did [in] the third period, I think the score would have been closer. The guys did well, they blocked some shots and helped me a lot."
Hodass cut it to 4-2 at 4:56 of the third period, scoring short-side with a one-timer from the top of the right circle on the power play.
Dufour scored at 14:44 on a wrist shot from the right circle for the 5-2 final.
"I didn't think it was our best game, but we were happy with the win," Dufour said. "Their goalie played well. It's his job to stop the puck and he's a pretty good goalie. We found a way to win the game and that's the important thing for us tonight, and now we look forward to playing Slovakia."
Canada next plays Slovakia on Thursday. Latvia next plays Slovakia on Friday.
Sweden 3, Switzerland 2 --Daniel Torgersson, a Winnipeg Jets forward prospect, scored two goals, and Sweden held off Switzerland in the opening Group B game for each team.
Torgersson, selected by the Jets in the second round (No. 40) of the 2020 NHL Draft, scored at 16:55 of the second period to give Sweden a 1-0 lead, and again 24 seconds into the third period to make it 2-0.
"It was a tough game. Switzerland is a good team, so we knew it was going to be a tough game," Torgersson said. "It was a good win for us. The first game of the tournament, you don't really know what the other team is going to be like."
Isak Rosen, a Buffalo Sabres forward prospect selected in the first round (No. 14) of the 2021 NHL Draft, scored 10 seconds later at :34 for a 3-0 lead.
Attilio Biasca (2023 draft eligible) scored for Switzerland at 8:47 to make it 3-1, and Dario Allenspach (2023 draft eligible) made it 3-2 one minute later at 9:47.
"I thought we played a good game, it was really physical and hard, but in the third period, we have to play better," Biasca said. "Those two early goals can't happen, but we were able to get two goals back. We have to be better on the power play. We had chances to score goals, but I think it was a good way for us to start as a team and we just have to build."
Jesper Wallstedt, a first-round pick by the Minnesota Wild (No. 20) in the 2021 draft, made 21 saves for Sweden.
Noah Patenaude made 26 saves for Switzerland.
Switzerland next plays the United States on Thursday. Sweden plays Austria on Friday.
Germany 4, Austria 2 -- Alexander Blank (2023 draft eligible) had a natural hat trick and an assist to help Germany get its first preliminary-round win in Group B.
Blank scored three goals in 7:26. His first tied it 2-2 at 3:37 of the second period, when he tipped in a point shot from Adrian Klein (2023 draft eligible). He gave Germany a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal at 8:49, then made it 4-2 at 11:03 on a tap-in off a pass from Justin Volek (2023 draft eligible) on the power play.
"It's always a great feeling to score goals," Blank said. "But I think the three points for the win was more important for us. We all played our best game today. It was a tight game against Austria, they made it hard for us but it was a good win for us."
Oleg Kvasha holds the WJC record for a natural hat trick, scoring three times in 4:01 for Russia against Kazakhstan on Dec. 25, 1997.
Josef Eham (2023 draft eligible) had a goal and an assist, and Volek had two assists for Germany. Florian Bugl (2023 draft eligible) made 15 saves.
Senna Peeters had a goal and an assist, Jonas Dobnig (2023 draft eligible) scored, and Ian Scherzer (2023 draft eligible) had two assists for Austria. Sebastian Wraneschitz made 40 saves.
"I think we started the game a little bit nervous, but we were able to shake that off," Scherzer said. "But you can't win a game if you're on the [penalty kill] for half of the game. We have to be more disciplined and stick to the game plan. That's the key to winning the game and we didn't do that."
Peeters gave Austria a 1-0 lead at 2:45 of the first period on the power play. He skated in from the point and scored from the right face-off dot.
Eham tied it 1-1 at 8:00, converting on a centering pass from Blank.
Dobnig gave Austria a 2-1 lead at 1:40 of the second period, spinning and scoring on a shot from the left circle.
Peeters was awarded a penalty shot at 5:45 of the second after Germany forward Ryan Del Monte (2023 draft eligible) hooked him as he drove to the net, but Bugl made the save.
"We knew that we were going to expect a strong opponent," Germany coach Tobias Abstreiter said. "Austria always battles hard and are always highly motivated against us. It's a good rivalry. It was important to have a strong game after yesterday's game against the U.S. [5-1 loss], and we had to outwork our opponent and I think our team did it really well."
Austria next plays Sweden on Friday. Germany next plays Switzerland on Saturday.