Tokarski holds back Chief chums

OTTAWA – After capturing a Memorial Cup title in Kitchener last spring, Dustin Bowman, Mitch Wahl and Tyler Johnson learned a lot about playing high-stakes, pressure-packed games in a hostile environment.

But even the Memorial Cup couldn’t compare to what they experienced Wednesday. The three Spokane Chiefs took to the ice wearing USA jerseys as they faced rival Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

With a bye to the tournament semifinals at stake, the Americans had to overcome not only the four-time defending champions, but also 20,000 flag-waving, thunder-clapping, loudly passionate Canadians.

To make matters even more interesting, Spokane teammate Dustin Tokarski was starting in goal for Team Canada.

With emotions running high, it was a wild game that had plenty of un-Spokane-like defensive lapses and undisciplined penalties for both teams. In the end, the Canadians prevailed 7-4 in game that was much closer than score would indicate, as Canada netted two empty-net goals in the final minute.

The first period was particularly eventful. The Americans stunned Tokarski and his teammates, silencing the crowd by taking a 3-0 lead just 12 minutes into the game, with Bowman picking up an assist on the third goal.

But Canada came back with three goals in the next 6 minutes to tie the game. Canada then took the lead with an early power-play goal in the second period, only to be tied 3 minutes later. But just 4 minutes after that, Canada took the lead for good, with Tokarski shutting the door on the U.S., with some exceptional play, including one sharp glove save to rob Colin Wilson.

A happy Tokarski said it was “weird” after the game to be shaking hands with his Spokane teammates.

“Usually, I’m celebrating with them, but not this time,” he said. “We just shook hands and showed respect. They’re great players.”

Wahl said it was also odd seeing Tokarski at the other end of the rink at the start of the game.

“Dustin’s been my roommate the last three years,” Wahl said. “We’re real good buddies. It’s funny – we’ll have laughs about it. He got the upper edge tonight, but hopefully we’ll see him again.”

Before that can happen, the U.S. will have to beat Slovakia in a quarterfinal Friday, and then Sweden in one of Saturday’s semifinals.

Canada will face the winner of the quarterfinal between Russia and the Czech Republic in the other semifinal.

“We just lost a tough one, but the playoffs are just starting so we’ve got another chance to get back and beat them hopefully and it starts against Slovakia, so we’re still positive,” said Bowman, who added that despite the loss, it was “really cool” to be able to play in such an exciting atmosphere.

Team Canada coach Pat Quinn said he’s not sure whether or not Tokarski will start in Canada’s semifinal game. He’s insisted all tournament that there is little to choose between Tokarski and Tri-City’s Chet Pickard, who started in two of Canada’s three games prior to the clash with the U.S.

Quinn made sure both were tested thoroughly in Tuesday’s practice, and after that he finally decided to go with Tokarski.

“He was rated No. 1 coming in by our scouting, so that’s probably the biggest reason,” Quinn said.

It has been a busy 48 hours for Tokarski. He signed a three-year contract with Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

While he insists that Team Canada remains his top priority until the end of the tournament, he admitted that the timing of the deal wasn’t great, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“When an NHL team approaches you about signing, you can’t say no because it’s at an inconvenient time,” he said.

Earlier, Andre Petersson scored two first-period goals in Sweden’s 5-0 victory over Russia, and Jan Kana scored four goals in the Czech Republic’s 10-2 victory over Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan was outscored 46-2 in its four losses.