World U-18 Championship: Day Three

McKeen's Director of scouting Max Giese is in Fargo, North Dakota for the World U-18 Championship and continues his daily blog with a brief look at some prospects from Team U.S.A, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Throughout the tournament, McKeen's will also be providing notes on several prospects from all the teams, as well as providing comments from several notable scouts at the tournament.

Day three of the 2009 World U-18 Championship for me was filled with good hockey and some frustration. Due to the floods here in North Dakota the parking lot at the UP Center is all mud and it has created a chaotic situation for anyone trying to catch a game there. The interior and exterior of my car is now filthy and I accidentally tracked the mud along with me back into the floor of my hotel room.

The game that I attended at the UP Center was between Finland and the Americans. Team U.S.A. received a nice home crowd and harnessed the fans energy to get off to a quick lead. Finland tightened things up and made the game quite interesting late in the third. In the end, U.S.A. held on with a 5-3 win. Ryan Bourque impressed with his great skating ability and fearless play for someone of his smallish stature. Cam Fowler is a difficult player to figure out because he's a thoroughbred skater and has tons of talent, but in the end, he doesn't accomplish much. Overall, for the Americans, every player displayed a flash but none could sustain a dominant performance.

For Finland, it was more of the same with Mikael Granlund and Pulkkinen stealing the show. Teemu Pulkkinen is about as smart of a player as you find and Granlund is as about dynamic in tight as you find. On one play, Granlund one-timed a fake slapshot/ pass through the American's defenses to an open Pulkkinen back door. It was an amazing play that displayed his skill, vision, and creativity. On the negative side, their goaltender Joni Ortio was beaten too easily up high, Tommi Kivisto just doesn't do it for me, and Toni Rajala disappeared when the contest became physical.

The other game was between Sweden and Germany, with no one expecting Germany to compete with the talent-laden Swedes. In the end, though, Germany capitalized on the bad penalties that Sweden took in the third and made it a close game. Germany has no players eligible for this years' draft that excited me, but 2010 eligible forward Tom Kuhnhackl has great hands around the net and was even dangerous from behind it. Right now, he's all offense and needs to complete his game, but no other player on Germany matched his physical package and NHL scouts should be all over him next season. For Sweden, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is simply a beautiful player that I absolutely have fallen in love with during my team here. Carl Klingberg is a big, hard-working winger that also has an outside gear - he's really grown on me.

Tomorrow I'll be seeing the Russians take on Switzerland and then will be heading to a USHL playoff game between Fargo and Omaha. Wish me luck dealing with the parking lot at the UP Center!