USA-Gold Sweden-Silver Russia-Bronze Canada- 4th

First off, congrats to the Americans for winning their third consecutive gold medal at the IIHF WJ U18 Championships. Although it took overtime for the victory, the Americans are deserving of the championship.

Canada however, wasn't so lucky in the bronze medal game against the Russians. Andrew D'Agostini got the start in goal over Malcolm Subban and Nail Yakpuov put on an offensive clinic against him.

However, Ryan Murphy put on a clinic of his own for Canada. After Nikita Kucherov opened the scoring at 11:36 with an unassisted goal, Murphy blasted a powerplay goal at 18:47 to even things up. Alan Quine assisted on Murphy's fourth of the tournament and that would end the first period.

At 3:07 of the second, Quine would score his first on the powerplay to put Canada up 2-1 on the powerplay with Mark Scheifele and Murphy drawing the assists. But the Yakupov show would take over with the Russians scoring 3 times in less than three minutes.

Yakupov got it started at 7:40 with the assist going to Roman Konkov. Yakupov would then set up Vladimir Tkachev at 8:24 to put the Russians ahead 3-2. Finally at 10:25 Yakupov would score short handed, his second of the game, from Tkachev to pull the Russians ahead by two. At 15:42 Kucherov would score his second from Mikhail Grigorenko and  Albert Yarullin to put the Russians up 5-2. Ryan Murray would score on the powerplay, his third, from Eric Locke to cut the lead to two before closing out the period.

Brett Ritchie would score his fourth at 18:20 to make it an interesting finish, Murphy drew the lone assist on the goal, his 13th point of the tournament which made him the highest scoring Canadian in the history of the tournament.

But it just wasn't enough as Yakupov would notch his third of the game from Kucherov to close out the scoring.

Murphy would be named the top defenseman in the tournament while Kucherov was named the top forward.

Canada Blanks Norway 5-0

Team Canada goaltender Andrew D'Agostini made started his first game at the Under 18 Championships and he made the best of it stopping all 19 shots he faced for Canada's second shutout of the tournament. Malcolm Subban had the other.

Nick Cousins got Canada on the board at the :58 second mark when he converted on a set up  From Mark Scheifele and Brett Ritchie. Scheifele then scored a goal on his own on the powerplay at 7:39 to put Canada up 2-0. Mark McNeill and Travis Ewanyk drew the assists. Colin Smith closed out the first period scoring when he was set up by Brent Andrews and Daniel Catenacci. Canada would outshoot Norway 22-6 in the opening period.

The second period would have as much domination as the first with Norway being outshot once again 19-4. But only the red hot Scheifele would be able to beat Norwegian goaltender Steffen Soberg. Ryan Murray would draw the lone assist on Scheifele's goal on the powerplay.

In the third it was once again the Soberg show as Canada continued to dominate the shot board, this time 21-9 making the game total 63-19. And once again Canada was only able to slip one past Soberg, this time by Slater Koekkoek at 11:01 on the powerplay. Charles Simard-Hudon would assist.

With the win Canada improved to 3-0 and lead Group B. They will face Sweden today at 10:00 a.m. (TSN and RDS in Canada), their strongest competition to date in the tournament.

14 OHL Players Named To Team Canada

There were 14 OHL players named to Team Canada for the Ivan Hlink Under 18 world championships in Germany set to go from April 14-24.

Here are your OHL players named to the 22 man squad

Goaltenders:
Andrew D’Agostini, Peterborough Petes
Malcolm Subban, Belleville Bulls

Defencemen:
Cody Ceci, Ottawa 67’s
Scott Harrington, London Knights
Slater Koekkoek, Peterborough Petes
Ryan Murphy, Kitchener Rangers

Forwards:
Austen Brassard, Belleville Bulls
Daniel Catenacci, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
Nick Cousins, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
Seth Griffith, London Knights
Eric Locke, Barrie Colts
Alan Quine, Peterborough Petes
Brett Ritchie, Sarnia Sting
Mark Scheifele, Barrie Colts

All but Cody Ceci, Slater Koekoek and Eric Locke, and goaltender Malcolm Subban are draft eligible in 2011.

My pre-season top 5 goaltenders

Tyson Teichmann –Belleville Bulls

Jordan Binnington - Owen Sound Attack

Jacob Riley – Brampton Battalion

Shayne Campbell – Sarnia Sting

Andrew D’Agostini – Peterborough Petes

Andrew D'Agostini

Andrew D'Agostini, Peterborough Petes

It’s hard to describe his style when you are talking about Andrew. Watching him, I’m reminded of Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins.




He’s not your typical butterfly style goaltender. He relies on his reflexes, athleticism, and reactions. He’s a small goaltender who posted great numbers for the Markham Majors. In 26 games he appeared in, he posted a 2.43 GGA with 3 shutouts.



In 17 games for the Petes, he registered a 4.43 GGA and .864 SV%.



With a few very good goalies in the OHL next season, I don’t think D’Agostini will garner the attention he deserves.