The 2012 World Hockey Championships are starting to wind down with the quarter-final games all set. Team Canada finished first in the Helsinki group and they will now face Slovakia Thursday. With Canada finishing first in the group, they can’t face the powerful Russians until the final which is Sunday May 20. The other match ups include: Finland vs. USA, Russia vs. Norway and Sweden vs. Czech Republic.
Four of the five Maple Leafs playing in the tournament have advanced with Mikhail Grabovski and Belarus being the only one to see their tournament end. Grabovski finished the tournament with four points in the seven games averaging over 20 minutes a game.
Nikolai Kulemin is among many stars on the Russian team as both Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin have joined the team for the quarter-finals. Kulemin had three points and a +4 rating in the seven games thus far.
Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf has been logging the third most ice-time for Canada at almost 20 minutes a game. Phaneuf finished the round robin with two goals and a +7 rating. The other member of the Leafs on Canada, Luke Schenn hasn’t seen a great deal of ice-time averaging 12:30 per game. He finished with one assist, a +3 and 25 penalty minutes.
The final Leafs player at the Worlds is Joey Crabb. The hardworking forward has continued his excellent season with Team USA as he has two points, a +1 rating in over 10 minutes a game.
