OTP - Helenius Needs To Play Top-Six Center In Rochester The Buffalo Sabres [https://puckpedia.com/team/buffalo-sabres] have six prospects playing for five countries at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships in Ottawa in action on the first day of the tournament, and the star of Day #2 was Amerks forward Anton Wahlberg. The Sabres 2023 second-round pick went pointless in Tre Kronor’s 5-2 victory over Slovakia on Thursday but was the scoring star for Sweden with two goals, two assists and six shots on goal in just 13:27 in an 8-1 win over Kazakhstan on Friday. Slovakia bounced back from the opening loss to Sweden with a 2-1 win over Switzerland. Sabres prospect and World Junior veteran Maxim Strbak was held pointless but led the club in ice time with 25:10. Sabres 2024 top Konsta Helenius and Team Finland were shut out in their tournament opener by Canada, but the 18-year-old bounced back with a nice assist in a 3-1 victory over Germany. Germany’s Norwin Panocha was -1 and went pointless in 22:14 in the loss. Brodie Ziemer and Adam Kleber’s Team USA did not play on Friday but will face Cinderella Latvia, who beat Canada 3-2 in a shootout on Friday. Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo [https://twitter.com/MikeInBuffalo]
