Panthers and Amerks and Juniors, Oh My

Florida's got another afternoon game today, this time in Pittsburgh, at 1PM. Stephen Weiss didn't practice yesterday due to a flu-type thing, so if he can't play, Horton will be back at center with Booth and Zednik on the wings.

Rochester played the Manitoba Moose last night and the Amerks came away with a huge 2-1 win. Mike Brodeur allowed an early goal but Stefan Meyer tied the game before the first period was over and Brodeur was lights-out for the rest of the game.

Cory Murphy, on a conditioning stint from Florida, assisted on the go-ahead power play goal in the third period.

Along with Shawn Matthias' return to the Amerks, Rochester was forced to recall Andrew Sweetland from the Florida Everblades due to injuries to Mike Duco and Riley Emmerson.

Sweetland had one assist in 21 games with Rochester before he was sent to the ECHL. There, he's played in seven games, scoring twice and assisting on two goals for four points. His AHL return was a quiet one, however.

As for Matthias, who returned to the AHL on New Year's Day, he didn't play in the game.

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Last night in the WJCs, Slovakia stunned the United States, winning 5-3. The loss has eliminated the US, a medal favourite, from contention and the best that USA Hockey can hope for now is fifth place. They'll play the Czech Republic tomorrow night.

Matt Rust had four of the United States' 49 shots on goal, but came away with nothing more than a -2.

Sweden and Slovakia will kick off their semi-final matchup at 3:30 PM today. The winner will advance to the final on Monday night at 7:30 PM.

In Sweden's last game, Jacob Markström shut out the high-powered Russian offense, stopping all 31 shots he faced. Andre Petersson (OTT) scored twice and Flames' prospect Mikael Backlund had a goal and an assist against Vadim Zhelobnyuk (undrafted), statistically the second-best goaltender in the tournament.

The Swedes shut down Nikita Filatov (CBJ) who, coming in to the game, led the tournament in goals and neutralized the Russian line of Klopov - Klyukin - Dadonov, which has combined for 17 points through five games.

As for Dadonov and the Russians, their next match is Canada. The two teams have yet to face each other in the tournament, although the Russian Selects, featuring some of the same players on the national U20 team, lost 5 of 6 games in the annual Canada-Russia Challenge two months ago.

Gametime's 7:30 PM for that one.