Only two Colorado Avalanche prospects played on Day 4 of the World Juniors. Finland cruised to another easy and high-scoring win over Kazakhstan, while Russia faltered mightily against the United States and dropped another game in the round robin.

Bowen Byram — DAY OFF

LD — Canada

Canada regrouped on Sunday at practice to prepare for their game against Germany today. Head coach Dale Hunter shuffled his lines, and Byram was promoted (likely because he was one of the only defensemen who wasn’t totally awful on Saturday against Russia).

Sampo Ranta

LW — Finland

Finland may have won 7-1 yesterday, but Ranta wasn’t quite as impressive as he was in the previous game, but he was still solid. He took two minor penalties (although the second one could be debated) and went pointless in 13:49 of ice time.

Ranta was on the ice for the 4-1 goal, where his linemates (and brothers) Aku and Aatu Raty connected:

Here was a scoring chance that he had, as well:

Finland took a ton of penalties in this game (nine, to be exact). As Ranta doesn’t kill penalties for them, he didn’t get as much ice-time as he probably would have had.

Finland’s lines were kind of a mess near the end of the game, and because they are only playing 11 forwards, Ranta played with some new linemates:

Justus Annunen — DAY OFF

G — Finland

Annunen was the backup goalie in this match, as Kari Piiroinen got the start for Finland. Anunnen has been absolutely stellar for Finland and definitely locked down the starting job, but with yesterday’s game being the second-half of a back-to-back against a weaker opponent, it was good for Annunen to get some time off. Barring injury, he will be playing for Finland in all of their remaining games. Finland’s last game of the round robin is against Switzerland on New Year’s Eve.

Danila Zhuravlyov

LD — Russia

I feel like I sound like a broken record when talking about Zhuravlyov (Z, as I call him on Twitter because it’s just easier sometimes), but if you don’t notice him on the ice, he’s doing his job perfectly.

Zhuravlyov did stand out on a couple of plays later in the game:

And of course, he recorded the primary assist on Russia’s only goal of the game. Zhuravlyov started the play, entered the offensive zone with the puck, and when he received the puck back, fed Romanov with a perfect pass:

Zhuravlyov finished with the one assist and played 16:05. Although it wasn’t the result Russia wanted, I thought Zhuravlyov played really well. Their final game of the round robin will come against Germany on New Year’s Eve.

Round Robin Schedule

(All times MT, teams with Avalanche prospects are bolded)

December 30

7:00am — Kazahkstan vs. Sweden
7:00am — Germany vs. Canada
11:00am — Slovakia vs. Switzerland
11:00am — USA vs. Czech Republic

December 31

7:00am — Sweden vs. Slovakia
7:00am — Russia vs. Germany
11:00am — Finland vs. Switzerland
11:00am — Canada vs. Czech Republic