The preliminary round of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship has come to a close in the Edmonton bubble with all four Buffalo Sabres prospects moving on to the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn have played their roles in helping Team Canada capture Group A of the tournament. The Canadians went a perfect 4-0 in the preliminary round, while out-scoring the opposition 33-4 in that span.
Cozens has been one of the more premier players of the tournament to this point, leading Canada in scoring with six goals and five assists for 11 points in four games. His 11 points is currently second in the entire tournament for scoring, only behind Trevor Zegras (Anaheim Ducks) from the United States.
The first round pick of the Sabres (seventh overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft started off his tournament with a six-point performance against Germany in a 16-2 win for the Canadians. Cozens didn't get scoring until the team reached the double-digit total, but he ended the night with a hat-trick and three assists, while also earning Player of the Game honors for Canada.
Over the course of the next three games, Cozens added three more goals and two helpers, including a two-goal performance on New Year's Eve against Finland to help Canada cement the top-seed in Group A.
Before the tournament started, Cozens was practicing on the Canadians' top line with Quinn on his left wing, as well as Chicago Blackhawks prospect Kirby Dach to his right. However, after Dach suffered a wrist injury that put him out of the tournament, the lines for Canada have shuffled quite a bit.
In the last two games for Canada against Switzerland and Finland, it looks like Cozens has found himself a nice spot on the right wing of the top line with Dylan Holloway (Edmonton Oilers) on the left wing and Connor McMichael (Washington Capitals) at center.
While Cozens currently sits on the right wing of the top line, he has played a much bigger role for Canada throughout the tournament. The 19-year-old has played as part of Canada's top line, while also getting plenty of work in during other key situations. He's been able to rotate in and take faceoffs when needed, and he's been a big net-front presence for the Canadians, just as he was in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic.
On top of all that, Cozens leads Canada in average ice-time among forwards at 17:20 per-game.
In addition, with Dach out of the tournament after his injury, Canada has looked to Cozens to split the captaincy of the team with defenseman Bowen Byram (Colorado Avalanche), who was also named an alternate captain of the team before the tournament.
Cozens will continued to be looked upon by the coaching staff to be a leader and a key presence on the ice for Canada as the tournament approaches its end. Meanwhile, he has continued to climb up the rankings for point scoring in Canada's World Juniors history, matching John Tavares' point total on Thursday night.
As for Quinn, he has had a different role for this Canadian team in the tournament, but he has filled his role quite nicely in the time being.
The first round pick (eighth overall) of the Sabres in the 2020 NHL Draft is averaging 13:08 of ice-time per-game, and has been able to score a goal and three assists for four points in his four games played.
While Quinn has been relatively productive over those four games for Canada, he's been able to do so while playing, at times, in different areas of the lineup. He's gotten some time on the power play, time on the penalty kill, and he's been on the ice for some late-game action, especially in their game against Slovakia, where he sealed the game with an empty-net goal.
Over the past two games, it seems like Quinn has gotten comfortable playing on Canada's second line on the left wing with Quinton Byfield (Los Angeles Kings) at center and Jakob Pelletier (Calgary Flames) on the right wing.
For Cozens, Quinn and Canada, their gold medal defense will continue on Saturday evening when they get set to take on the Czech Republic at 7 p.m. EST in the third quarterfinal game of the day.
As for Buffalo's other first round pick playing in this tournament, United States defenseman Ryan Johnson has really played a smooth, solid game from the blue line.
In his four games played to this point, Johnson has scored a goal and registered a pair of assists, while also getting four shots on goal, earning a plus-4 rating, and averaging 14:45 of total ice-time per-game. However, one area he does have to clean up is his discipline, as he's earned six of the U.S.' 12 total penalty minutes in the tournament.
While Johnson's role has not been much of a big one from the back end, he has found a comfortable spot in the bottom pairing, and has mainly played with either his teammate with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Brock Faber (Kings), or Henry Thrun (Anaheim Ducks).
Where Johnson has had his effect on the success of the U.S. in this tournament is his transition game and his puck movement. He's been able to help the Americans transition from defense to offense quite well, and that starts with his skating and puck moving capabilities.
Despite losing to Russia in the opening game of the tournament, the U.S. was able to win the next three games and claim the top spot in Group B. The Americans closed out preliminary play late New Year's Eve with a 4-0 shutout win over Sweden, handing the Swedes their first regulation loss in the preliminary round since the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship.
In the win over Sweden, Johnson was able to pick up his lone goal of the tournament after a faceoff win and a nice feed from Zegras into open space.
The United States will be the final game of the quarterfinal round on Saturday night in Edmonton as they will take on Slovakia at 10:30 p.m. EST.
The final Sabres prospect playing in the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship has really stepped up his game, and helped his country punch its first-ever ticket to the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
J-J Peterka is a massive part of a top line for Germany, along with Tim Stuetzle (Ottawa Senators) and Florian Elias (undrafted) that has scored 28 of the team's 38 points in four games of the tournament.
In his four games of the 2021 World Juniors, the 18-year-old has managed to score four goals and amass six assists for 10 points, which is currently tied with Stuetzle for third in the tournament. Peterka's best game of the tournament, to this point, was in Germany's final game of the preliminary round on Wednesday when he factored into all five goals of a 5-4 win over Switzerland. Peterka managed to score three goals, including the game-winning empty-net goal late in the third period, while also adding two assists.
Buffalo's second round pick (34th overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft has been on the ice for Germany in just about any and every situation possible in this tournament. He's averaged the third-most ice-time of anyone on the team through four games (25:31), he goes up against the other team's best lines on a nightly basis, and he's been utilized on the power play, penalty kill, and in late-game scenarios in close games.
Peterka is only adding on to the success he had at last year's World Junior Championship, where he scored four goals and registered two assists for six points in just seven games for the Germans. He's combined for 16 points (8+8) in 11 games total, and still has one more year of eligibility in this tournament.
The Germans have gotten most of their production from their top line in this tournament, and no team has been able to really shut down the Peterka-Elias-Stuetzle trio to this point.
They will look to continue to make noise in this tournament, and throughout the hockey world on Saturday as they will open the quarterfinal round against the Russians at 12 p.m. EST in Edmonton.
All four quarterfinal games on Saturday can be seen in the United States on NHL Network.