WORLDS: Moose Alum make Quarters

Nathan MacKinnon representing Team Canada
Photo - Avalanche website

The 2017 Men's World Championships are being played right now in Cologne, Germany and Paris, France and after 11 days of round robin competition complete, the quarter-final matchups are set. Four former Halifax Mooseheads find themselves in the medal round. The Herd actually had 6 alumni participating in the tournament, contrary to my previous post which said 4.

It is no surprise to anyone that Team Canada is in the quarters. The Canadians are looking for their third straight gold medal and Nathan MacKinnon has been leading the way for the red and white during this year's preliminary round. He scored a hat trick in a game against Slovenia and finished the first round with 12 points (5 goals & 7 assists), second in tournament scoring. The Memorial Cup champion Kid Mack was also a plus-6 and had 6 penalty minutes to help Canada finish on top of Group B with a 6-0-1-0 record. They will go up against co-host Germany who have big 6'5" defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser on their team. Konrad was unable to find the score sheet but was a minus-3 and had 10 shots credited to his name. The Germans finished fourth in Group A with a 2-2-1-2 record.

The final two former players in the quarters are Jakub Voracek and Petr Vrana who play for Team Czech Republic. Voracek scored a goal and had 5 assists which tied for team lead while Vrana had a goal & an assist. The Czechs finished third in Group B with a 3-2-0-2 record and will face Russia. Jakub was also captain.

In the Round Robin former moose made quite the impact on each of their teams, either it be goal scoring or leadership each player showed what they could do to help their countries.

The match ups for tomorrow's quarterfinals are as follows:
Finland vs United States 11:15 am
Czech Repuplic vs Russia 11:15 am
Germany vs Canada 3:15 pm
Sweden vs Switzerland 3:15 pm

Good Luck to the former Mooseheads players in the medal round!

Ehlers receiving player of the game May 14
Photo - Jets website

Nikolaj Ehlers could not help his Denmark team get into the medal round. He recorded 4 assists in 7 games for the Danes, who had a 1-2-0-4 record in Group A. Their lone regulation win was in the team's last game of the prelims against Italy. The Italians had Guilio Scandella on the team. Scandella played for the Moose in 2000-2002. He had two assists for Team Italy who were relegated to Division 1 for 2018 after going winless in the round robin.