Of Red Wings prospect-related note at the World Junior Championship, where the Quarterfinal playoff rounds were played on Thursday:
Axel Sandin Pellikka had an assist, finishing at +1 with 4 shots in 22:19 played as Sweden defeated Latvia 3-2, but the Swedish captain told IIHF.com’s Lukas Aykroyd that the team is not satisfied simply playing for a chance to play for gold:
Sweden, which earned its all-time record 12th silver medal at last year’s World Juniors in Gothenburg, will compete in the final four for the fourth straight time. Their last gold medal came in 2012 in Calgary with a 1-0 overtime win over the Russians.
“It feels good, ” said Swedish captain Axel Sandin Pellikka. “Obviously we won the game, so that’s what we’re going for and we’re now looking forward to the semis.”
On a day that he wasn’t the superstar story of the tournament, Sandin Pellikka deferred credit to one of his centermen while speaking to NHL.com:
David Edstrom (Nashville Predators) scored and Sweden held off a Latvia rally to advance to the semifinals.
“He’s been awesome,” Sweden captain Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Detroit Red Wings) said of Edstrom. “It feels like he wins every face-off. He’s really important. He fights hard, he always wants to win the puck battles. He’s awesome.”
Axel Sandin Pellikka(1st round’23)
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 2, 2025
1 Assist +1 4SOG 22:19 TOI 3-2 W
Another impressive performance. ASP had some good 1v1 defense in transition. Primary assist+Shots through traffic. He’s yet to be on the ice for a 5v5 goal against this tournament #LGRW #skeaik #WorldJuniors2025 pic.twitter.com/DOIkg2sYsP
Here are the Sweden-Latvia highlights…
And Sandin Pellikka was blunt after the game, as noted by FloHockey:
Axel Sandin Pellikka (DET) isn't at the World Juniors to be the top scorer. He's here to win with Team Sweden.#WorldJuniors #WJC #IIHF pic.twitter.com/FoFabEdJT7
— FloHockey (@FloHockey) January 2, 2025
Elsewhere, Trey Augustine got the night off as Team USA won 7-2 over Switzerland. Max Plante finished at +1 in 13:10, and Hampton Slukynysky stopped 17 of 19 shots in goal for the Americans.
Max Plante(2nd round’24)
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 2, 2025
+1 13:10 TOI in a 7-2 W
Plante had his assist taken away. This kid on the forecheck is a menace. The last clip US is up 7-2 with 11 seconds and he wins a race+battle and is tripped. Great passing as well you’ll see a backhand sauce in the clips #LGRW pic.twitter.com/19dn6KHILq
Jesse Kiiskinen scored a goal and added an assist, finishing at +1 with 1 shot in 13:03 played as Finland won 3-2 over Slovakia.
Kiiskinen earned praise from Daily Faceoff’s Colton Davies:
#38 Jesse Kiiskinen, C (Detroit Red Wings): One of the most fun players to watch all tourney, Kiiskinen found himself on the scoresheet twice in the first period, banging home a goal and then creating a nice play for Nurmi to score Finland’s second of the night. Kiiskinen was all over the offensive zone finding himself in multiple scoring opportunities.
Jesse Kiiskinen
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 3, 2025
1 Goal 1 Assist 1 SOG +1 13:04 TOI in a 5-3 W
In terms of being engaged and moving his feet I thought this was Jesse’s best game of the tournament. TOI down due to tons of penalties for Finland. But Kiiskinen was good on the forecheck+created quite a bit #LGRW pic.twitter.com/AW0vTPXnnP
Finally, the Czechs beat Canada 4-3…
Yzerman with Horcoff and Cleary and Holland watching Canada vs Czechia. #LGRW #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/qXpcXmmxNH
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 3, 2025
Setting up the following Semifinal match-ups on Saturday night:
Axel Sandin Pellikka’s Swedes will battle Jesse Kiiskinen’s Finns at 3:30 PM on the NHL Network and TSN;
And Max Plante and Trey Augustine’s Americans will battle Czechia at 7:30 PM on the NHL Network and TSN.
The winners of Saturday’s games advance to the Gold Medal Game at 7:30 PM on Sunday; the losers of Saturday’s games battle for the Bronze Medal at 3:30 PM on Sunday.
Elsewhere, in NCAA hockey, Red Savage had an assist, finishing at +1 with 1 shot and an 0-and-1 faceoff record as the Michigan State University Spartans won 4-3 over the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Jack Phelan had an assist for Wisconsin.
Red Savage(4th round’21)
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 3, 2025
1 Assist 1/2 SOG +1 2 PIM in a 4-3 win.
Nice spin off the wall for the assist. #LGRW
pic.twitter.com/C7csjc2nkW
Jack Phelan(5th round’23)
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 3, 2025
1 Assist +/-0 0/1 SOG 2 shot blocks in a 4-3 loss #LGRW
pic.twitter.com/iwefK8YuaE
