Ty Lewis, Conor Timmins and the Canada Russia Series Recap

One more chapter is in the books on the path to the World Junior Championship as Canada narrowly edged Russia to win the series which was played in six different cities across three CHL leagues over two weeks.

In game one in which the WHL shutout team Russia 7-0, Ty Lewis posted an assist on a Dillon Dube goal from a pass he executed in the neutral zone. In game two WHL dropped the match to Russia 4-3 while Lewis had one shot on goal and a -2 rating. Lewis was mostly paired with Jaret Anderson-Dolan and they made a speedy duo together. Lewis’ speed was mentioned in the clip below as he created a prime scoring chance shorthanded. He saw plenty of time on the penalty kill and overall quite a bit of ice time.

On the OHL side, Conor Timmins was relatively quiet in game three as the OHL lost to Russia by a score of 5-2. Timmins didn’t register any points and was a -2 but did put four shots on goal. However, in game four Timmins was fired up and scored a goal and added two assists to go along with five shots on goal and a -1 rating. All three of the goals involved Nick Suzuki and the pair made a nice duo on the power play especially. Timmins’ goal was a big blast from the blue line as seen below.

For his efforts, Timmins was also named player of the game in OHL’s 4-2 win over team Russia, which again tied the series.

Finally for the QMJHL, their portion of the series was much tighter as they had a younger roster to go against the Russian squad of mostly 19 year-olds. In game five the QMJHL edged Russia 3-1 but then Russia came back to nab game six in the final minutes with a 2-1 win. The series technically ended in a tie 3-3 but those don’t exist in hockey so naturally what does hockey do to settle a tie, have a shootout! Maxime Comtois was the lone goal scorer in the shootout and Canada took home the victory.

The draft eligibles took center stage in this series. Only Joe Veleno got on the scoresheet with an assist in game five but his hard work and tenacity was on display in both contests as seen below. Benoit-Olivier Groulx settled into a defensive role, which is typical for him. Jared McIsaac leaned on his defensive game as well. Defenseman Noah Dobson lead the quartet with four shots over the two games and showed his impressive two-way tool set in a big 6’3 frame, which is pushing him up the draft rankings.