Calgary Flames prospects at World Juniors 2018

Five Calgary Flames prospects played on Saturday Dec. 30 at the World Juniors 2018. We have the update on how they did.

All but one prospect for the Calgary Flames played on Saturday Dec. 30 at the World Juniors. Linus Lindstrom for Team Sweden faced off against Team Switzerland where Sweden won 7-2. Adam Ruzicka and Team Slovakia went against Juuso Valimaki, captain of Team Finland along with Eetu Tuulola. Tuulola initially made Team Finland’s roster, but it seemed like he was a healthy scratch as he wasn’t on the roster on IIHF’s website. But he finally made it in the game again yesterday.

Then finally, we have Dillon Dube, captain of Team Canada, who had a dominating 8-0 win over Team Denmark.

Let’s start with the first game with Linus Lindstrom and Team Sweden. Lindstrom didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he played 14:39 minutes, had one shot and was +1. His linemates had a couple of goals, so he could have been a factor there. Lindstrom was player of the game in Sweden’s first game of the tournament with 11 faceoff wins, no losses, and being a dependable centre. He still has no points through three games of the tournament, but he’s still contributing in other ways. Sweden has three wins in three games for nine points to lead Group B.

We then have Valimaki and Tuulola vs. Ruzicka. Valimaki had an excellent game vs. Denmark in the previous game. He had eight shots alone, outshooting the entire Denmark team and had one goal and one assist, bringing him to three points in two games. He had a bit more of a quieter performance vs. Slovakia with 21:33 minutes of ice-time, had one shot, and was +1. He still has three points in three games.

Tuulola played in his first game in the tournament. He didn’t make it on the scoresheet, but he had 9:53 minutes of ice-time, one shot, and was +1. Ruzicka on the other end of the ice had a decent game. In the Slovak’s 3-2 win over USA, while he didn’t have any points, he had five shots and was on the ice for all the Slovaks goals and not on the ice for any goals against.

He had one assist in the 5-2 loss to Finland. He had two shots and a -2 rating. Unfortunately, he was on the ice for three of Finland’s goals, but he wasn’t to blame for any of the goals. He had 18:53 minutes of ice-time which led all Slovak forwards and was third highest on the team.

Lastly, we have Dillon Dube for Team Canada with their dominating performance. Dube on the other hand had somewhat of an average game. He was on the ice for just one of Canada’s goal, had two shots, and had 13:45 minutes of ice-time. This was a few minutes less than the average number of minutes he’s been playing every game. It could be because he only played around one minute in the third period.

Next: Flames need to consider a major shake up

There are you updates for Calgary Flames prospects at the World Juniors! We’ll see you all in the New Year.