Last Day for the WJC Preliminary Round

Two of the three Cats' prospects were in action yesterday and, as has been the case so far for all three teams, they won their games.

The early game set Russia against Slovakia and it marked the first game of the tournament where Evgeni Dadonov did not pick up a point. Despite this, he had his chances and was still very active in the Russian dominance, including four shots on goal. With the help of Nikita Filatov's hat trick, Russia easily handled Slovakia, 8-1.

Next up: Sweden.

Later on in the evening, the United States went up against Kazakhstan in a game that everyone imagined would be a blowout. And they were right.

Even though the Americans were sloppy for most of the first period (the game was scoreless through sixteen minutes) the goals did eventually come, and when they finally broke through, it just kept piling on.

The line of Tangradi, Rust and Palushaj was put out to start each period to set the pace, and even in the lackluster first period, they did a good job. Rust was a workhorse playing end to end, picking passes and setting up plays all night. His nose for the net led to a rebound goal in the final seconds of the game, and his play with Michigan teammate Aaron Palushaj helped Palushaj get his first goal of the tournament in a game where he'd score twice and pick up four points. The two points Rust would get move his tournament tally to four (3 goals, 1 assist).

During the game, Panthers' general manager Jacques Martin was interviewed and he looked, and sounded, like a kid in a candy store gushing over the quality and abundance of players in the tournament.

Tonight, the biggest (and last) game of the preliminary round will see the United States and Canada in action. The Canadians are outscoring opponents 28-2 through three games while the Americans are outscoring their opposition 24-5. There's a three-way tie for top spot in total points (9) with two Canadians (John Tavares, Cody Hodgson) and one American (Jordan Schroeder). It's going to be a great game.

As for the Russia-Sweden matchup alluded to above, that game is this afternoon while the Panthers are playing. The two teams are nearly identical in the standings:

Russia is 3-0, Sweden is 3-0. The goal differential for both teams is a +13. Russia has scored 17 goals in three games, Sweden has 16. To the contrary, Russia has allowed 4 goals to Sweden's 3.

Someone's got to lose.