Despite some lopsided scores, Thursday, December 29th at the World Junior Championship wont go down for me as a night of blowouts.

I’d rather focus on numbers big numbers and special achievements. Yes, Canada clobbered Denmark 10-2 and Russia pounded Latvia 14-0. While I do have an idea as to a change that could make this great event even greater, I want to focus on some brilliant individual performances.

In Canada’s rout of the Danes, the shutdown defensive pairing of Ryan Murray and Scott Harrington combined for six points, with Harrington led the way with 4 points. The Kingston, ON. product isn’t known for offense to say the least. Here is the more impressive number the pair combined for – a plus-14 rating.

If you thought that was good, try this.

I really never imagined anyone threatening Peter Forsberg’s single game record of 10 points in a game. Forsberg recorded 10 points in a 20-1 romp over Japan during the 1992 tournament.

Washington 1st rounder Yevgeni Kuznetsov connected for nine points in the Russian crushing of Latvia. Kuznetsov, a tournament all star in Buffalo a year ago, found the net three times and added six assists. Quite a breakout night considering he did not record a single point in his country’s first two victories.

Nikita Gusev wasn’t bad either. He was in on seven of his squad’s goals.

For those of you in attendance at either game, consider yourself lucky. Those outings are found in rare air.