Sunday, December 28, 2008

Prospect watch in the WJC: Day three

Ottawa Senators prospect Andre Petersson (#20, at left) celebrates with teammates Marcus Johansson (#11, centre) and others.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Senators have three prospects in the 2009 World Junior Championships, defenceman Erik Karlsson (1st round, 15th overall, 2008) and forward Andre Petersson (4th round, 109th overall, 2008), both playing for the Swedish squad, as well as centre Jim O'Brien (1st round, 29th overall, 2007), playing for the United States.

In their first game of the tournament, a 3-1 win over Finland, Petersson had an assist on the game-winning goal, and was +1 on the night. Karlsson, the much-heralded first-round pick, didn't record a point, but had three shots and was also +1 on the night.

Team USA's first game was an 8-2 victory for the Americans, and O'Brien had one assist with two shots on the night, and was +1.

As for the Victor Hedman/John Tavares sweepstakes, Tavares fared better in his tournament debut than Hedman. The two are considered the front-runners for the first-overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft: Hedman had two shots and was +1, while Tavares had two goals, one assist, two shots, and was +3 overall.

I'm going to the Sweden/Slovakia game tonight, so I'll certainly keep an eye out for Karlsson (number 5 for anyone watching), Petersson (number 20), and Hedman (number 4).
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