Mads Søgaard and Jonathan Brinkman fell short returning to junior hockey’s biggest stage following an 0-1-1-3 performance at the IIHF World Junior Championship Division 1A tournament in Minsk, Belarus.
Austria held on to win the round-robin tournament with a 4-0-0-1 record and will advance to compete at the world juniors in Red Deer and Edmonton next year. Denmark was forced to settle for fifth at the six-team event.
The Danes closed out their run at the tournament with a 7-2 loss to the host Belarussians Sunday. Søgaard was relieved after allowing four goals in the first period.
Despite the disappointing outcome, Søgaard still managed to post a .904 save percentage with a 3.22 goals against average over four games – including a 26-save performance in a 1-0 shootout loss to Norway on Friday. It was the 19-year-old netminder’s final tournament as a member of Denmark’s national junior program.
As for Brinkman, the 18-year-old winger closed out his tournament with an assist over five games played.
The Danes picked their lone win at the event in a 2-1 overtime victory over Slovenia on Dec. 10.
Søgaard and Brinkman will be back with the Tigers when they return to the ice on Dec. 27 against the Broncos in Swift Current.
