After an off day, the 2021 World Juniors resume on Saturday with four quarterfinal games on the schedule. Those matchups are as follows (all times in CT):
11:00 AM: Germany vs Russia
2:30 PM: Sweden vs Finland
6:00 PM: Czech Republic vs Canada
9:30 PM: Slovakia vs USA
It’s the first time that Germany has made it this far in the tournament, led in large part by a trio of players who rank third, fourth, and fifth in scoring in Tim Stuetzle (OTT), J-J Peterka (BUF), and Florian Elias (draft-eligible). The winners of today’s games will move onto Monday’s semifinals with the medal games being held on Tuesday. NHL prospects on teams that are eliminated will be able to make their way to training camp if they’ve been invited but will need to go through a quarantine period even though the tournament is being played in a bubble environment.
More news from the tournament:
- A pair of players will be sitting out today’s action due to suspensions as the IIHF announced that Russian forward Mikhail Abramov (TOR) and German forward Justin Volek (draft-eligible) have both been suspended for one game. Abramov’s ban comes from a slew-footing incident against Sweden on Wednesday while Volek’s suspension came on a cross-check against Switzerland late in their matchup on Wednesday.
- After multiple teams had positive tests upon entering the bubble, the IIHF released the results of their latest testing which had no new positives. Testing continues to be done daily for all players and team staff including for teams that are eliminated but are still in the bubble.
- Canada center Alex Newhook (COL) did not practice with the team on Friday and is considered 50-50 to play against the Czechs, head coach Andre Tourigny told reporters including TSN’s Mark Masters. He left Thursday’s contest against Finland late in the first period after taking a hit from defenseman Eemil Viro (DET).