Despont, Swiss eliminated on wild day at world juniors

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HALIFAX - It was wild day of quarterfinal play at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship on Monday. Here's a quick recap...

• The world juniors are over for Vincent Despont and Team Switzerland. The Swiss scored just 22 seconds into their quarterfinal matchup but that would be the team's lone bright spot, falling 9-1 to Czechia in Halifax.
• After not playing at all in regulation time in Switzerland's final preliminary round game, Despont had 7:32 of ice time in this game. Much of that (6:06) came in the third period when the game was already out of reach.
• Despont, who will turn 20 in February, finishes his world junior career with one assist in 10 games split over two tournaments.
• Switzerland captain - and Halifax Mooseheads captain - Attilio Biasca was clearly devastated by the loss. He still spoke to media after the game though.
• The game of the day was certainly Canada's 4-3 overtime victory over Slovakia, which had a little bit of everything. It was far from a perfect game by the Canadians, but the Slovaks deserve a ton of credit for their performance.
• The Canada/Slovakia game was a perfect example of what makes junior hockey so great. You just never know what you're going to see when you put these elite but inexperienced players in such a high stakes environment.
• Incredible atmosphere at Scotiabank Centre. This is the fifth world junior tournament I've been to and Monday's crowd was by far the most electric. The semifinals will be something else.
• In the other quarterfinals, Finland blew a late third period lead and lost 3-2 to Sweden while the United States blewout Germany 11-1.
• Monday attendance figures: noon - 7,263; 2:30 p.m. - 8,746; 5 p.m. - 7,262; and 7:30 p.m. - 10,349.
• The semifinals, which will take place Wednesday in Halifax, will feature Czechia taking on Sweden and Canada facing the United States. The bronze and gold medal games will be held on Thursday in Halifax.
• The Fan Fest at the Halifax Convention Centre is pretty impressive given how few sponsors this event has and how little time the organizers had to pull this all together. Explore NB has really gone all out with their activations.
• The Hockey Writers discusses why the world juniors should be played in junior hockey markets more frequently.
• Lost in the Connor Bedard show on Monday was the play of Thomas Milic and this defensive play from Sherbrooke Phoenix d-man Tyson Hinds.

Can we talk about Tyson Hinds' game-changing glove save last night? 🤯#WorldJuniors | @PhoenixSherbroo pic.twitter.com/rllC5a6TYU

— QMJHL (@QMJHL) January 3, 2023