Thompson and Veinbergs advance to World Junior Championship quarterfinals

Two Tampa Bay Lightning prospects in Jack Thompson and Klavs Veinbergs will continue their quest for a gold medal at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship when the tournament quarterfinals begin on Wednesday afternoon.

Veinbergs and Team Latvia are set to battle Team Sweden at 3:30 p.m. ET while Thompson and Team Canada will take on Team Switzerland at 7 p.m. ET.

Before both Bolts draft picks take the ice on Wednesday, here’s a look at how they got to the quarterfinals after advancing through the preliminary round.

KLAVS VEINBERGS

Veinbergs is the most recent player to be drafted by the Bolts after being selected in the seventh round (224th overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft in July. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound winger skated in 47 games with HK Riga of the MHL last season, scoring 16 goals and adding eight assists for 24 points as an 18-year-old.

After competing in the 2021 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship last year, Veinbergs went on to represent Latvia at the 2022 IIHF Men’s World Championship last May. Now skating in the third international competition of his career, the 19-year-old Veinbergs helped Team Latvia earn its first preliminary-round victory in World Junior history. With the win, Latvia earned a spot in the quarterfinals for the first time ever.

Latvia opened the tournament against a tough opponent in Team Finland on August 9. Veinbergs scored the lone goal for the Latvians with a one-timer from the right circle early in the third period, but Finland would skate to a 6-1 win behind two four-point performances from Nashville Predators 2022 first-round pick (17th overall) Joakim Kemell and New York Islanders 2021 second-round selection (52nd overall) Aatu Raty.

Following the loss, Latvia was right back at it the following night with a game against Thompson and Team Canada. After heading to the first intermission with the contest tied at one, the Canadians scored three consecutive second-period goals to take a 4-1 lead into the final frame.

The Latvians were able to get one more goal on the board with a power-play tally early in the third period that saw Veinbergs earn his second point of the tournament with an assist. As the power play began, Veinbergs lined up against Nathan Gaucher, the Anaheim Ducks first-round pick (22nd overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft, and cleanly won the faceoff back to Girts Silkalns, who sent a pass to Bogdans Hodass before the 19-year-old defenseman blasted a one-timer into the back of the net. Canada would add a fifth goal late in the third period to wrap up a 5-2 victory.

Following a 3-2 loss to Slovakia on August 12, Latvia needed a win over Czechia in its final game of the preliminary round. While Veinbergs was unable to find a way onto the scoresheet, Latvian captain Ralfs Bergmanis stepped up with a hat trick to lead his team to a historic 5-2 win and punch a ticket to the quarterfinals.

Latvia will hope to continue its run with a win against another formidable opponent in Team Sweden. The Swedes finished the preliminary round with three wins and just one loss, a 3-2 defeat against Team USA. While Team Sweden’s roster has 22 NHL draft picks, including seven first-round selections, Team Latvia has just three NHL draft picks on its roster.

Fans interested in watching Veinbergs and Team Latvia take on Team Sweden can catch the game, live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, on NHL Network on Wednesday afternoon.

JACK THOMPSON

A third-round selection (93rd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, Thompson has ascended near the top of Tampa Bay’s prospect pool with consistent growth since being drafted. After starting the 2021-22 season as captain of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves, Thompson was traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

He kicked off the year with 23 points (8G, 15A) in 29 games with Sudbury before skating in 36 games with the Soo and picking up 34 points (13G, 21A) to finish the regular season with 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points. The 21 goals were tied for the most among all OHL defensemen.

Now skating at the World Juniors for the first time in his career, Thompson has been showcasing his talent to a national audience with three assists through the Canadians’ first four games.

In the aforementioned game against Team Latvia, Thompson recorded one assist on a power-play goal for Canada and finished the game with three shots and a plus-one rating.

Following a dominant 11-1 win over Slovakia, Canada put its 2-0 record on the line against Team Slovakia and skated away with a 5-1 win to remain undefeated. After Thompson was shaken up from blocking a shot, he returned to record his first multi-point game of the tournament with two assists.

The first assist was a primary helper with Thompson walking the blue line and firing a hard wrist shot towards goal that deflected off the knee of Mason McTavish and into the net to even the score at one in the first period.

Just 2:16 later, Thompson again showed his ability to fire pucks through traffic from the blue line with a slap shot from the point that was stopped by Tomas Suchanek. After Suchanek failed to control the hard shot from Thompson, Kent Johnson retrieved the puck for Canada before scoring a beautiful goal with ‘The Michigan’ move, first made famous by University of Michigan alumnus Mike Legg. Thompson finished the contest with two assists, a plus-four rating, and three shots on goal before being named the Player of the Game for Team Canada.

While Thompson failed to record a point in Canada’s final preliminary-round game, he still fired two shots on goal and recorded 18:21 time on ice as the Canadians took down Team Finland 6-3 to wrap up a perfect preliminary round.

Thompson’s plus-six rating is currently tied for the sixth-best among all skaters and fourth among all defensemen at the World Juniors. The Canadians will hope for more of the same in Wednesday night’s win or go home quarterfinal matchup against Switzerland. The Swiss finished the preliminary round with one win, a 3-2 win over Austria, and will face an uphill battle against Team Canada, a group that many selected as the favorite to win the tournament.

Fans interested in watching Thompson and Team Canada take on Team Switzerland can catch the game, live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, on NHL Network on Wednesday evening.

Eight teams remain standing at the World Juniors, Canada, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. All quarterfinal games will be competed on Wednesday before the semi-final round begins on Friday, followed by the gold- and silver-medal games on Saturday.