Moose Jaw Warriors forwards Robert Baco and Martin Rysavy continue to see plenty of positive results from the World Junior Hockey Championship.
And you’ll be hard-pressed to find a bigger win than what Baco and Slovakia put together on Wednesday night.
The Kosice product scored his team’s go-ahead goal 11:48 into the second period and Slovakia would never look back on their way to a 6-3 victory and the upset of the tournament so far.
Baco -- who played on a line with Frantisek Dej and Marcel Stefancik -- ended up with 13 shifts and 6:47 of ice time and finished the game plus-two.
As Warriors fans have seen throughout his time in Moose Jaw, the 6-foot-2, 214-pound right winger has shown a propensity for stepping up to defend teammates. Baco did just that in the game’s final seconds as he took a cross-checking major and game misconduct after a teammate was slew-footed along the boards. As a result of the play, Baco received a one-game suspension and missed Slovakia's final round-robin game.
The win was huge for Slovakia’s playoff hopes, as they now have a 1-1-0-0 record and sit in third place in Group B, tied with the U.S. and a point back of Switzerland.
Slovakia returns to action on Friday when they take on Latvia, with a victory there sending them into the quarter-finals.
The news wasn’t as good for Rysavy and Czechia on Thursday afternoon, as they’d fall 3-2 in overtime to Sweden but still picked up a valuable point in the process.
Rysavy played alongside Jakub Kos and Matous Mensik and recorded 20 shifts for 12:44 of ice time. He had a single shot on net and was minus-two.
Czechia now have a 2-0-1-0 record, with their seven points good enough for second place in Group A, one point back of Sweden and four up on Canada. That’s good enough to earn a quarter-final spot even with a game left on their schedule against Germany on New Year’s Eve.
Canada, meanwhile, was all about Connor Bedard on Wednesday night.
The Regina Pats superstar set a single-game record for Team Canada with three goals and four assists for seven points in their 11-2 rebound win over Germany.
Dylan Guenther (NHL Arizona) also had a hat trick while Shane Wright (NHL Seattle), Brandt Clarke (NHL Los Angeles), Logan Stankovan (WHL Kamloops) and Zack Ostapchuk (WHL Vancouver) all had single markers.
Canada faces Austria on Thursday night before closing out their round robin against Sweden on Boxing Day.
The quarter-finals are set for Monday, followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, Jan. 4 and medal games on Thursday, Jan. 5.
