Rough day for Penguins’ reps at Worlds, Yager’s memorable Memorial Cup debut

Random Sunday thoughts about the little that is going on for current events regarding the Penguins

Happy Sunday morning to one and all. Hope your Menorial Day weekend is going better than how it went for the Penguins’ representatives yesterday at the World Championships.

Team Sweden looked like the team to beat early in the tournament as they were racking up a perfect 7-0 record in the preliminary round. The Swedes took down their rival Finland in OT in the quarterfinal but yesterday lost a shocking by a 7-3 score to the host Czech team. Sweden will play for bronze today, but just like that the hopes and dreams of Erik Karlsson and Marcus Pettersson for becoming world champs this year are gone.

Kyle Dubas (Team Canada’s AGM) and Michael Bunting can commiserate with that feeling of the shock and disappointment today as well. Canada fell 3-2 in a shootout to Switzerland - oof level 10/10 to suffer elimination in a shootout. Anyways, the Swiss have been sneaky good all tournament going 6-1 (one win it OT) in the prelims, and avenging their one loss of the tourny to Canada by beating them when it counted most in yesterday’s semifinal game.

That leaves the unusual and unpredictable final of Czechia vs Switzerland to happen today. Gotta love a short tournament with single elimination, eh? Nice story for a little parity in a high level tournament that is tends to be dominated in the sport by the same talent-rich nations every year (US, Canada, Sweden, Finland).

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Friday night saw Brayden Yager and his Moose Jaw Warriors start off the Memorial Cup by playing the host Saginaw Spirit.

It was a tough day at the office for Moose Jaw, the emotion for Saginaw was through the roof and that factor for young players can be heavy in the air. Shots in the early going were 30-13 in favor of Saginaw. The Spirit were up 4-0. Moose Jaw was being run out of the building and barely looked like they belonged at all.

Pittsburgh 2023-first round pick Brayden Yager showed his stuff and continued his impressive season by helping to turn the game around. Yager scored late in the second to make it 4-1. Nice play, but this goal was more about stemming the flow of play and turning the game around.

That goal turned the game around. Denton Mateychuk (CBJ first round pick from 2022, and coincidentally a cousin of Pittsburgh first rounder Owen Pickering) scored 37 seconds after Yager did and Moose Jaw officially had life.

Yager poured gas on the fire with another goal before intermission. He started the play with a check on projected top-10 2024 draftee Zayne Parekh, then worked a give and go with Mateychuk that allowed Yager to open up and use his best tool with the wrist shot to fire the puck home. In just 95 seconds the score went from a 4-0 lopsided snoozer to a raucous 4-3 contest. Yager was right in the middle of the action.

If Moose Jaw somehow could have lobbied for intermission not to come and the game to go on for a few more minutes it’s almost a guarantee they would have tied the game and taken the lead if they only had a few more shifts to keep pouring it on Saginaw. Unfortunately for them that’s not the way the world works and intermission came after 20 minutes (as it always does) breaking their momentum and giving Saginaw the chance to regroup. The Spirit would score early in the third to regain a two-goal cushion and hold on for a 5-4 win.

Yager added an assist on the goal Moose Jaw scored in the third. They attempted annother desperate and furious push to beat the buzzer but it wasn’t enough for the first game of the Memorial Cup. The end of that second period sure was electric though.

Moose Jaw and Yager get another crack at the action tomorrow night, squaring off against the OHL champion London Knights.