Canada West defeated the USA quite easily, by a score of 5-1. Canada West is a pretty stacked team, so it is no surprise they are in the championship game. Josh Robinson started in goal, and took the loss for USA.
USA plays Russia this afternoon (4 pm CST) for the bronze medal.
Scoring Summary:
Mike Cichy 1 (Seth Helgeson 2)
USA Player of the Game: Seth Helgeson.
23 comments:
Goes to show that leagues like the BCHL have talent that is equal to or better than the USHL.
Funny how a few months ago USHL folks were bragging about beating two low end Q teams and saying how good their league was....now they barely beat a bunch of OPJHL allstars and lose big time to a BCHL/AJHL squad.
Any team coached by Boris is a good team. Look what he has done for Camrose since he has been there.
Two low end Q teams? I think one of them was ranked number 8 in the CHL rankings to start the year.
I think the BCHL/AJHL is closer in talent to the CHL/USHL than most would like to admit.
Clear-cut proof that the USHL is certainly no better than the Canadian Jr A programs. Scouts are you watching? Or is Turow's propoganda still the determining criteria.
I agree some of the major junior people need to get a grip. The USHL, BCHL and even the NAHL talent level is right there. Who is tearing up the OHL this year...oh yeah some kid from St. Louis, Missouri who played in the NAHL last year
Pre-season rankings mean nothing, results are everything. Rimouski is in 16th place out of 18 teams while Quebec is in 10th. Take into account that both teams were missing their top players and you can clearly see that the USHL is a big step down.
As for Maroon, he is currently in 12th place in scoring, hardly ripping the league up!
interesting that the author would make a statement like the Canada West team is stacked so it is not a surprise they are in the final. what makes them stacked and what are we to assume, that the USA team is not as talented? interesting comment after the whooping the USA team took.
All-Star teams are not a fair representation of how the league is overall anyway, a bunch of kids who have never played together until a day before the whole thing started.
12th place isn't ripping the league up? supposedly the best junior league to develop kids for the NHL and 12th isn't ripping it up? weird.
Pat Maroon is a great player, was signed by a NHL team and is playing in the right league....that of course is the OHL. He would have destroyed the USHL this year but in the O,he is only the 12th best player. That is the difference between the two leagues. The O is chalk full of talent while the USHL has some good players. No comparison really.
Allstar teams are not indicative of what league has the better teams but it does show that the top talent in the Canadian Junior Tier II ranks are not only as good as the one's in the USHL but in all liklihood, a tad better!
I wouldn't say better, probalby equal, but some of the USHL top kids are still in the USHL
any team which takes GB's Keegan Flaherty, who isn't even dressing every night here, can hardly be considered the best the USHL has to offer.
"Any team which takes GB's Keegan Flaherty, who isn't even dressing every night here, can hardly be considered the best the USHL has to offer."
Exactly, the US team is a political nightmare. The 20 best US Junior A kids are not on that team. ie Marroon didn't get picked when he was eligible and he is top 20 in the OHL this year. Don't know if you can say the same about the Canadian teams...it seems the Canadians do a better job of keeping the political bs out.
major jr. players are not eligible, only jr. A tier II. that is why Maroon is not invited.
Good chance Maroon will be on the U-20 World Junior team though.
"Major jr. players are not eligible" That is why I said when he was eligible. "Only jr. A tier II. that is why Maroon is not invited." Technicality but isn't the USHL tier I?
USHL is tier 1 in the USA. they are playing against tier 2 players from Canada.
the best Canadian jr. players are not in this tournamet either, ie...CHL players. also, there are multiple Canadian teams in the tournament and only 1 team from the States.
USHL All-Stars just finished behind two Canadian Tier II split squad teams and they are still making excuses.
Maybe you need Bob to create a speadsheet that proves that Bronze is actually Gold.
God knows you guys, his disciples, would accept it verbatim.
I'm not sure this was the best squad that the USHL could send over but regardless, the brass at USHL must be embarassed.
For a league that likes to bill itself as "America's Tier 1 League", a lot more was expected and most people must be in shock to see how they were totally owned by Canada West.
get a different coach in there instead of PK once. he does about every USHL tournament team and they dont seem to do too well. the most players came from Waterloo, and Kessel was the only one to do worth a damn.
canada west is stacked, they have kids from the BCHL and AJHL. Those are two very quality leagues, and they could probably hold their own with the USHL.
WHL winning the recruiting wars (0) [Back]< Prev | Next >
(Sports) Thursday, 15 November 2007, 21:57 PST
JIM SWANSON, Citizen Sports Editor
It’s not that the Western Hockey League hasn’t reverse-recruited players before -- think Mike Comrie, Chuck Kobasew, or Peter Mueller -- but the stream certainly seems to have changed direction.
At a rate greater than in recent years, the WHL has been recouping talent that had originally spurned major junior hockey for the lure of life as an NCAA student-athlete. In just the last few weeks alone, WHL teams have added the likes of Jeff Lee, Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Jamie Benn, not to mention the off-season news that T.J. Galiardi, Keith Seabrook (both now with the Calgary Hitmen) and Jim O’Brien (Seattle) altered course on their individual hockey careers.
While Kyle Turris and others have followed the college path, recent events are a change from the days when Jonathan Toews, Daniel Bertram, Tyler Swystun and other top young prospects headed south, much to the WHL’s chagrin.
“We’re starting to see more and more players changing their minds, and it only helps us with our recruiting league-wide,” said Prince George Cougars coach Drew Schoneck, who just over a year ago was working in the BCHL and using NCAA scholarships as a major recruiting tool.
“These are big-name players who went to the NCAA for a year and then left. It helps us, for sure, and we’re not shy to mention to a player who might be considering that road that other guys aren’t staying in college for long, opting instead to play in the WHL.”
O’Brien, a Minnesota native and first-round draft choice of the Ottawa Senators, was a major feather in the cap of the T-birds over the summer, and the belief there is that Mueller’s decision to join Everett and take the faster path to pro hockey were duly noted by O’Brien. The centre played one season for the Golden Gophers, a program that had Mueller apparently signed, sealed and delivered a few years back before Kevin Constantine and the Silvertips won out.
Pierro-Zabotel is a different story in that he had academic issues that led him to give up a scholarship to Michigan Tech for a roster spot with the Vancouver Giants. Evan Pighin is another BCHL player who returned to the WHL, though he was ineligible for the NCAA because of time spent in Red Deer. Pighin left Salmon Arm for the Chilliwack Bruins less than two weeks ago.
“The NHL has a lot to do with influencing their drafted players on where they want them to play,” said Schoneck.
“The Canadian Hockey League is the only league that really mirrors what pro hockey is like. In college, you play 30-odd games and practice four times a week but you’re not getting the day-to-day grind like an NHL player. NHL teams want their guys to have to go through that experience.”
The Cougars didn’t land them, but the cases of Lee, now with the Edmonton Oil Kings, and Benn, who is 20 games into his time with the Kelowna Rockets after leaving the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies, have a definite Prince George tie-in. Cougars assistant coach Wade Klippenstein, then an NCAA assistant, was heavily involved in the process of getting the forwards on scholarship offers from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Lee played at UAF this season, Benn was earmarked for next fall.
“Both those guys were his recruits, and it’s interesting to see them do an about-face,” said Schoneck.
n Now, to the distasteful situation at hand.
Schoneck had a meeting Thursday with his veterans in the Tri-Cities, where the Cougars (9-15-0-0) will try to break out of a six-game losing streak tonight against the seventh-ranked Americans (15-5-0-0).
The message, on the heels of Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to Tri-City, was frank.
“These things can spiral, and we don’t have a very experienced group,” said Schoneck.
“They’re looking for a way to pull out of it. We met with the veterans, and we told them we have to rely on them. Our first-year guys are going to play, but we said it’s up to those guys to get the job done and lead the group to be better overall.”
Prince George has been outscored 30-12 in the six games, and the league’s worst penalty killing team has given up 13 power play goals in 31 chances against (a 58.1 per cent kill rate).
The Cougars close the trip Saturday in Spokane, then are on the road again next weekend with stops in Kamloops and Kelowna.
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