(WGR Sports Radio 550) – For Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens and defenseman Owen Power, it was a very good World Championship playing for Canada.
Cozens was selected to the Media All-Star team after leading the tournament in goal scoring for the second time in three years. Back in 2022, Cozens led the tournament with seven goals total. This year, he had nine goals in 10 games.
The 23-year-old also had a streak during the tournament where he scored in six-consecutive games.
What should give him more confidence is he played in all situations for Canada. Cozens and Power were both on the No. 1 power play, and Cozens netted four goals. He added two shorthanded goals, which meant he only had three 5-on-5 goals in the tournament.
Cozens will face better faceoff men in the NHL, but he did do well in this tournament by winning 51.9% of his faceoffs.
After the 2022 tournament, Cozens had a career season with the Sabres, scoring 31 goals and 37 assists for 68 points.
Meanwhile, Power was very impressive, and it earned him a spot on Canada’s top pair on defense with Colton Parayko (St. Louis Blues). They led the team in ice-time, and Power thrived in both ends of the ice. He was confident in defending, he joined the rush with conviction, and looked even better than he did when he showed so much improvement after Jan. 1.
In 10 games played this tournament, Power had a goal and five assists for six points.
I’m not predicting it, but this tournament could put Power in the running for the Olympics.
Bo Byram had a very solid tournament as well, and showed what he could do when he plays on a team with some defensive structure. In nine games, Byram had a goal and four assists for five points and was plus-4.
Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Olofsson were the only Sabres representatives to win medals by taking home the bronze with Sweden.
Dahlin is a much better overall defenseman than Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins), but Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning) had always wanted to play with Karlsson. That put Dahlin on the second pair with Jonas Brodin (Minnesota Wild). Dahlin could’ve learned so much playing with Hedman, but he had to settle for being on the power play with him.
Dahlin had two goals and seven assists for nine points in 10 games played for the Swedes. That’s actually one more point than Hedman in the tournament.
JJ Peterka had his second-straight productive World Championship with Germany. While the Germans failed to advance out of the quarterfinal round, the Sabres winger had five goals and four assists for nine points in eight games.
In the end, it was Czechia taking home the gold medal in the tournament, its first since 2010. The host country for the World Championship shut out Switzerland, 2-0, thanks to third period goals from David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) and David Kampf (Toronto Maple Leafs).
