There are 3 games of Red Wings prospect-related note at the World Junior Championship in Ottawa today: Axel Sandin Pellikka and Sweden will battle Slovakia at 12 PM; Trey Augustine, Max Plante and Team USA will battle Germany at 2:30 PM, and Jesse Kiiskinen and Finland will tangle with Canada at 7:30 PM.
All three games will air on the NHL Network in the U.S., and TSN in Canada.
As Augustine is going to play a large role in Team USA’s push to win a gold medal, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discusses the importance of Augustine dominating in goal:
The biggest reason for confidence in Team USA is the man who will occupy the crease: 2023 Detroit Red Wings second round draft pick Trey Augustine. This will be Augustine’s third crack at the WJC, and, without question, he is the Americans’ most important returner.
At last year’s event, Augustine was dominant: a 1.75 goals against average and .936 save percentage. Thus far this season at Michigan State, he’s upholding that standard with an 11–2–1 record, 1.98 goals against average, and .930 save percentage.
Augustine is also a serial winner. For Team USA, he has already won gold at the World Junior and U-18 Worlds. At MSU, he arrived as a freshman to a team that had never advanced a single round in the Big Ten Tournament in program history and proceeded to win the conference’s regular season and tournament crowns. Put it all together and you have a well-earned confidence at the most important position in any knockout tournament.
When asked at Team USA’s pre-tournament selection camp last week about the value of his WJC experience, Augustine quipped, “I just feel old now. I felt young at the start. I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I’m one of the old guys on the team.”
Continued; Augustine and Team USA face a middling “round robin” schedule, playing against Germany and Latvia before battling Finland and then Canada, so there’s no reason to think that they’ll be playing in the quarterfinals next week.
