Trevor Zegras continues to power Team USA’s offense in the World Junior Championship, as the U.S. blanked The Czech Republic, 7-0. A Hockey East All-Rookie selection last season, he scored twice and dished out three assists as Team USA broke open a scoreless game with three in the second periods and four in the third. Zegras nearly completed a hat trick in the final period, ringing a shot off iron on a power play.
tw-align-centerTrevor Zegras does it again pic.twitter.com/jbcnUa16UW
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) December 29, 2020
With a 5-5-10 scoring line, the 2019 Anaheim #1 draft pick leads the tournament in both goals and points and has found the net in all three games thus far. Among all-time Team USA leaders in World Juniors history, Zegras ranks second in points per game (2.38), assists per-game (1.75) and total assists (14, trailing only Jordan Schroeder’s 20).
Team USA is back on the ice tomorrow night for its final preliminary round game and will seek to break Sweden’s 54-game unbeaten streak in the preliminary round.
● USA Hockey recap and video highlights
● IIHF box score
Looking back—BU and Cornell play double OT tie
The following report is from the “Red Hot Hockey Since 1925” Terrier Tales article found in the sidebar. The championship game of the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament--54 years ago today--matched two undefeated teams—#1-ranked BU against #2 Cornell (with Ken Dryden in goal)—in a thriller still talked about in college hockey circles.
Dec. 30, 1966— Boston Arena—BU played two three-game
tournaments in December 1966. A week after sweeping Princeton, Minnesota and
Clarkson at the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, the Terriers skated
on their home ice, Boston Arena, in the Arena Christmas Tournament. They beat
Harvard and Northeastern to improve to a 12-0 record and a #1 ranking.
Meanwhile, Cornell dispatched the same two teams and was also undefeated at
11-0 and ranked #2, setting up what is considered one of the greatest college
hockey games ever played.
Both squads were far from fresh as they were about to play for the third time
in as many days before a capacity crowd of 5,450. The officials for the game
were Giles Threadgold and Bill Cleary, later coach and athletic director at
Harvard.
According to the Ithaca Journal, “Cornell had a wide edge in territorial play
in a penalty-marred first period, but the Terriers capitalized on their opportunities
and thwarted the Big Red's power plays.”
All three first-period goals came on power plays. Cornell drew first blood just
2:13 into the game. With two Terriers in the penalty box, Harry Orr took a pass
from Mike Doran and beat goalie Wayne Ryan.
BU senior Jim Quinn scored the equalizer four minutes later, converting a feed
from Fred Bassi. Then, with half a minute left in the period and BU up two men,
a Brian Gilmour slapper whizzed past Cornell goalie Ken Dryden for a 2-1
Terrier lead.
Cornell regained the lead early in the second on a pair of goals by Bob
Ferguson and Skip Stanowski. Ryan got a glove both shots but couldn’t keep them
out of the net. Play raged up and down the ice throughout the period with 33
shots taken, but no further goals.
The pattern continued well into the third period with Dryden keeping BU’s
high-scoring ”Pinball Line” of Herb Wakabayashi, Mickey Gray and Serge Boily
off the scoresheet. Finally, in the latter part of the period, BU got the tying
goal from an unlikely source, sophomore defenseman Darrell Abbott.
“I think there were about 3 or 4 minutes left in the third period and we were
losing 3-2 when either Pete McLachlan or Brian Gilmour—our two veteran,
all-star defensemen—got a penalty, and the other, shortly before that penalty,
had been injured,” Abbott recalls. “Coach Kelley had no choice but to put the
two rookies—Billy Hinch and me--out together. It was the first time Billy and I
had played together as a pair so I'm sure Coach was more than a little
concerned.
“Cornell dumped the puck into our end in the process of making a slow line
change. Billy set up in front, while I picked up the puck behind our net, fully
expecting to look up and ice it, seeing as how we were a man short.
“But when I looked up there was only one Cornell player standing at center ice
and the others were just coming over the boards. With no pressure I began to
skate up ice only to realize that I could beat this guy. At this point
everything happened so fast. There I was, going in on a partial breakaway and,
contrary to all logic, I roofed a backhander into the net over Dryden’s
shoulder on the short side to tie the game.”
The game went to a 10-minute overtime and, the Ithaca Journal reported,
“Cornell had the edge in the first three minutes of the first overtime with
Ryan making a sensational save on Doran from in close, but BU outskated the Big
Red during the last seven minutes. Dryden had brilliant saves on Boily and Bill
Hinch late in the period.”
The two coaches agreed to play one more overtime period, but neither of the
weary teams mounted much of an attack in the second overtime and the teams were
declared tournament co-champions. Goalies Ryan (32 saves) and Dryden (40 saves)
shared the MVP award.
Abbott added that “It was the first game that my Father had attended at BU so
it was even more special for me. He was sitting in the first-row balcony, right
above our bench. Of course, having seen the success that Ken had subsequent to
his days at Cornell, I feel I was very fortunate to have scored at all, but it
is amazing how many people remember that goal even to this day. I was
especially honored by the fact that Ken still remembered me years later, even
after all the Stanley Cups and the Russian experiences. His comment to me was
‘I always remember the big ones’.”
