The World Junior Championship has reached its knockout stage.
Just eight teams remain in the quest for the gold medal and after a day off in action today, there will be four quarterfinal games tomorrow. All four Blue Jackets prospects, Kent Johnson, David Jiricek, Martin Rysavy, and Stanislav Svozil, will be playing.
Team Canada faces off against Team Switerzland tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET and Team Czechia plays Team USA later that night at 10:30 p.m. ET. The games will be broadcast live on NHL Network in the U.S. and on TSN in Canada.
Your #WorldJuniors quarter-finals matchups:@leijonat vs @deb_teams @Trekronorse vs @lhf_lv @HockeyCanada vs @SwissIceHockey @usahockey vs @narodnitym pic.twitter.com/aFxUXJFbLp
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 16, 2022
All four prospects have had their moments of great performance. Jiricek (21:41 ATOI) has been among the leaders in ice time in all four of Czechia's games, Johnson (1-3--4, 25 SOG) pulled off 'The Michigan', and Svozil (1-2--3, 21:41 ATOI) and Rysavy (2-0--2, 7 SOG) have both impressed. Not that performance in this tournament directly translates to NHL success, but at least fans can maybe get a glimpse of what's to come in the future.
The opening goal for Czechia at the 2022 #WorldJuniors belongs to Martin Rysavy! @MJWARRIORS pic.twitter.com/oK6NNcQNrI
— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) August 9, 2022
KENT JOHNSON with the goal of the tournament! @hockeycanada up 2-1 against @narodnitym #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/qY5WtdawAa
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) August 13, 2022
Stanislav Svozil (#CBJ) ties the game with a beauty, 2-2. #WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/A6uL9fnJtK
— Czech Prospects (@CZprospects) August 14, 2022
Columbus Blue Jackets prospect David Jiricek shined in his first game at the #WorldJuniors for Team Czechia. #CBJ https://t.co/C7Yx7EirFQ
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) August 10, 2022
Will the Jackets' prospects be playing in the semi-finals? We'll know by Thursday morning.
