WCJ: Filip Mesar has a huge first game with Slovakia

This morning, the World Junior Hockey Championship kicked off in Sweden with a match between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And although Juraj Slafkovský wasn’t there, Filip Mesar is in uniform for the Slovaks at this tournament.

Obviously, then, they’ll be a team to watch in Montreal… especially as Mesar is bound to be a big part of the Slovakian line-up, which could muddy the waters at this tournament.

And this morning, even though the club needed goaltender Adam Gajan to keep him in the game in the first period, the Slovak machine started to unblock in the second. On the power play, Mesar fed Servac Petrovsky to put his side ahead.

Nice cross pass from Mesar on the sequence.

And from the end of the second period, the Slovaks really started to make mincemeat of the poor Czechs. Peter Repcik, Samuel Honzek and Boris Zabka all threaded the needle to give the Slovaks a 4-1 lead.

That said, Mesar decided to put on another show in the third period. On the offensive restart, he seized the disc and made a sublime rise before offering a superb pass to Petrovsky, who scored his second of the match.

In the end, the Slovaks prevailed by a score of 6-2… and confirmed that they are to be taken seriously in this tournament.

The Czech Republic isn’t the biggest opponent on the Slovakians’ path, but good teams dominate in these “easier” matches. And today, Slovakia was dominant… even without Slafkovský and Simon Nemec, the country’s two hockey gems. Imagine what it could be like with those two.

Mesar was expected to have a great tournament, and this morning he got it off to a good start with a solid performance.

I can’t wait to see if he can keep the momentum going.

Extensions

In addition to the Slovaks, the Canadians are also greatly affected by the absence of key players at this tournament. Connor Bedard, Kevin Korchinski, Shane Wright, Zach Benson and Adam Fantilli could all represent the country, but they didn’t get permission from their NHL teams to take part in the tournament.

The absence of Slaf and Nemec hurts the Slovaks, but it hurts Canada even more, we agree.