Boxing Day Bonus

We lied. We're back early with some results from the just-completed games at the World Juniors. First off, if you're looking for information on a specific team or player, you may wish to check with the IIHF's official site.

Two games have been completed, and two will follow this afternoon (for those of you in US/Canadian time zones). Again, please view the above site for specific times in your region.

Now, Borat jokes aside, the United States team officially opened its tournament against Kazakhstan. While the Kazakhs did hold an early 1-0 lead, it appears this game became very one-sided quickly (we apologize, as there is no video to link to). The US team equalized with 3 seconds remaining in the first period, and then the Islanders' prospects got going soon after.

University of Denver product (and Islanders prospect) Rhett Rakhshani gave the US the lead 4:58 into the 2nd period and the Americans never looked back. Kyle Okposo had one of the assists on that goal, then netted a goal of his own just before the book was closed on a 5-1 United States win. Okposo tallied the 2 points (1G, 1A) on 5 shots and left the ice with a +2. Not a bad day for the US team overall, as there were many solid contributions; you can see the full boxscore here [PDF].

While that was taking place in Liberec, Sweden was taking on Slovakia down in Pardubice. In that game, Swedish forward (and you guessed it, Islanders prospect) Robin Figren was helping his team to a 4-3 victory. Figren contributed 2 goals, raising the overall combined Islanders-prospect total on the day to a hefty 5 points (4 G, 1 A). Not bad if you ask us.

We'll close our abbreviated coverage here, but we'll be back in short order with the rest of the news from what promises to be a busy day of hockey. We'll be checking in to see how Wonderboy and Young Nasty Man performed for Team Canada, and then we'll give you our impressions of Jason Blake's return to Long Island (Leafs at Isles, 7 PM EST). It's a lot for one day, but you already know we don't sleep at Okposo Net.