WJC Today - 1/3/12

CANADA

A trip to the gold medal game is on the line tonight in Calgary when Team Canada takes on Team Russia at 10pm AST. TSN’s coverage of the semi-final begins at 9:30pm.

The winner of tonight’s game will play the winner of the today's Sweden – Finland game on Thursday night.

Russia played last night, winning a thriller 2-1 in overtime over the Czech Republic. Canada has not played since New Year’s Eve when they defeated the Americans 3-2.

Beaulieu, who took a puck in the face on Saturday night against Team USA, is expected to play this evening. Defenseman Scott Harrington is also expected to play after getting hurt on Saturday as well. Scott Wedgewood will start in goal.

Some pre-game readings:

• Journal le Nord – a story on Jonathan Huberdeau’s brother Sebastien.
• Calgary Herald - Canada looks for rock solid performance from Stone.
• The Calgary Herald’s game preview.
• The Globe & Mail has a story on Jacques Beaulieu’s connections to this game.
• Canada’s games are averaging 2.4 million viewers on TSN.

SLOVAKIA

Slovakia lost 8-5 to Finland yesterday, meaning the Finns moved on to the semifinals. The Slovaks will play the Czech Republic tomorrow to wrap up their tournament.

"Obviously we felt like we played really good this tournament,'' said Tomas Jurco to the Calgary Herald. "Like I said in lots of interviews, we felt like we had a great team and we felt we could do more in this tournament. One game didn't go well for us.

"It hard to take.”

Jurco had an assist, one shot, and a +1 rating in the game. As Yahoo! Sports reports, Jurco battled through an injury to help his country.

"In the first shift I got injured," said the second round pick of the Detroit Red Wings. "I pulled my hip flexor, so I wasn't sure if I was going to come back to the game but I wanted to help the guys."

He also said he’s not sure if he’ll play in tomorrow’s game. Jurco has suffered from hip flexor issues in the past, but hopefully this is nothing too serious. The last thing Saint John needs is another injured forward.

Here are the highlights from yesterday’s game.

USA

Charlie Coyle managed to not record any points in Team USA’s 12-2 blowout win over Latvia today to open up their relegation round schedule. He finished the game with three shots on goal and an even rating.

The US plays their final game on Wednesday against Switzerland.