Canada Edges Kazakhstan 15-0, USA Beats Czechs at IIHF World Junior Championships

FanHouse is keeping hockey fans updated on the happenings at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa.

Goal differential counts in this tournament.

That's good news for Team Canada and bad news for Team USA after Sunday's play at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championships.

While the United States needed to hold on for dear life to beat the Czech Republic 4-3, Canada was scoring at will against poor Kazakhstan, winning 15-0. It was a result that matched the Canadian record for margin of victory in a shutout during this competition.

Jordan Schroeder (2009 draft eligible) scored twice for the Americans, who took a 4-1 lead early in the third period before the Czechs rallied. Thomas McCollum (Detroit) weathered two major storms from the Czech offense, one in the first half of the first period, and another late in the game. The first of the major flurries was stopped by a Schroeder power-play goal, while the second wasn't stopped until the horn blew to end the game.

Canada had no such problems.

Outshooting the Kazakhs 69-11, including 25-1 in the third period, Canada was never in any danger. A frustrated Kazakhstan team took a couple nasty runs at Canadian players in the third period, but otherwise simply provided a goaltender for Canadian target practice.

I haven't had a look at any of the teams in Group B (playing games at the Ottawa Civic Centre), but I have to believe Kazakhstan is easily the worst team in the tournament. Cody Hodgson (Vancouver) led the charge with two goals and four assists. Jamie Benn (Dallas) picked up a hat trick and assisted on two goals. John Tavares (2009 draft eligible) scored two and and had two more assists.

All in all, the Canadians had eight power play goals, and they had a 60-minute game they can take nothing but 15 goals from.

To me, if the IIHF is going to insist on allowing lesser nations to qualify teams for this tournament, the least they could do is stop providing so many spots in the field for them. Bob McKenzie of TSN agrees, saying it's time to go to an eight-team field once again.

This used to be an eight-team tournament until that was changed in 1996 when the format was changed. Now they said at the time that they wanted to give some of the weaker countries to square off against some of the stronger countries in junior hockey in hopes that they will get better.

That hasn't happened and it hasn't even been close. If you want any illustration of that, the 15-0 outcome tells the tale. And don't forget - Kazakhstan lost 9-0 to Germany the night before.

He's right. If no one is going to bother to compete with Canada and (to a lesser extent) the United States and European countries like Russia and Sweden, there's no point in allowing them in the tournament.

It's a waste of time for the other countries, and it provides games that are nothing more than a 60-minute injury risk for the players on the winning side.

In today's hyper-sensitive society, however, it's not something that's likely to change anytime soon. Everyone has to have a chance to play on the big stage, even if they embarrass themselves when they get there.

Other action Sunday saw Russia get two goals from Columbus first-round pick Nikita Filatov in a 5-2 win over Finland, while Sweden held off Slovakia 3-1.

Canada and the United States lead Group A with 2-0 records, while Russia and Sweden are 2-0 in Group B.

On Monday, Sweden plays Latvia at 3:30pm Eastern at the Ottawa Civic Centre, while Canada hosts Germany at 7:30pm Eastern at Scotiabank Place.