Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Matthew Knies and the team USA were handed their first loss at the 2022 World Juniors and are going home after falling to Czechia in the quarterfinals.
After going a perfect 4-0-0-0 in the group stages and outscoring their opponents 22-4 in that span, USA is going home after a stunning 4-2 upset against Czechia in the quarterfinals.
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Matthew Knies picked up an assists on the Americans’ first goal of the game, but his club struggled for most of the match.
And they weren’t without their chances.
Down 3-1 in the third period, USA successfully killed of a major penalty assessed to Brett Berard. Later in the frame, the Americans were gifted a five-minute power play when Stanislav Svozil was ejected for slew-footing.
Carter Mazur took advantage and cut Czechia’s lead down to 3-2, but that was as close as they would get.
Knies, Toronto’s second-round pick (57th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, finished the tournament with just three assists in five games and left much to be desired in his tournament performance.
His best game was the final group stage match against Sweden where he was a physical presence in front of the net in a closely contested matchup.
The 19-year-old didn’t get a goal in the summer edition of this tournament, but Knies did score in the first game for USA in December before the tournament was canceled and later postponed. As far as his personal stats, that goal will count in his stat line when look up his hockeydb.com page.
It’s hard to take anything out this tournament to assess where Knies’ game is at. Another game or two in a do-or-die scenario would have been great for his development. Now his focus will be on school as the Arizona native returns to the University of Minnesota where his school will take another crack at a national title.
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