EVERETT – Ivan Baranka’s time away from the Everett Silvertips was well spent.
Baranka helped Slovakia exceed expectations by finishing sixth at the World Junior Championships in Finland.
“I think we played good there,” the 18-year-old defenseman said. “We made the playoffs, which was the main thing.”
Baranka did not expect Slovakia to fare well because of a lack of age and experience. But Slovakia finished 2-1-1 in pool play, including a 2-2 tie against defending champion Russia, to take second in the pool. Slovakia then lost 4-2 to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals and lost 3-2 to Russia in the fifth-place game.
Nonetheless, Baranka was happy with his team’s performance.
“We didn’t have any snipers on the team, maybe just one, but we were a hard-working team,” Baranka said. “We played like a team.”
Some of Slovakia’s success has to be attributed to Baranka, who had one goal, one assist and logged a lot of ice time.
“I had lots of ice time,” Baranka said. “It felt great there on the ice, they have very big rinks. You had lots of time, time (with the puck) on the ice.”
Baranka missed 11 Silvertips games in December and January while at the World Juniors. He returned to Everett at 7 p.m. last Thursday after a 36-hour journey, then played in all three of the Silvertips’ games during the weekend.
“I’ll tell you, what he pulled off this weekend is almost physically impossible,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “To fly in, get in the night before a game, be 12 time zones away – which completely screws up your body – barely get a night’s sleep and play three games in a row, it’s phenomenal that he could even pull that off. Many times guys will come back and they’ll just give them time off to rest. But we wanted to play him and we didn’t overplay him. We tried to keep all our players rolling. Before he went to that tournament he was logging a lot more ice time than he logged in these last three games and we did that on purpose. We wanted to ease him back in and now he’ll get a little rest, get acclimated, get his body clock back on Pacific time and now his game will start to pick up again.”
Injury update: Everett left wing Tyler Dietrich just can’t find any luck.
Dietrich’s latest shoulder injury, suffered Saturday during Everett’s 3-2 home victory against Portland, will sideline him another one-to-two weeks. It is his third shoulder injury of the season. Dietrich, expected to be one of Everett’s top offensive players this season, has played in just 10 of Everett’s 43 games because of the shoulder injuries.
Right wing Torrie Wheat is also expected to miss the next one-to-two weeks. Wheat, who has missed the last four games, also is suffering from a shoulder injury.
Around the WHL: Whereas last week was a busy week in terms of player movement because of the trade deadline, this week has been a busy week in terms of management movement. On Monday Kamloops parted ways with general manager Mike Moore, who had been the team’s GM since 1998. Coach Dean Clark assumed the GM duties on an interim basis. Then on Tuesday, Lethbridge fired coach Mikko Makela. Lindsay Hofford, the former coach of the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, was hired Wednesday to replace Makela. … With three wins in four games last week, the Silvertips leapt three spots in the Western Major Junior Hockey Writers Association poll. Everett is now 11th. Kelowna remained the unanimous No. 1 for the fifth straight week. Prince Albert and Swift Current again swapped places, with Prince Albert returning to second and Swift Current dropping to third. … Kootenay forward Nigel Dawes was named the WHL Player of the Week for Jan. 5-11. Dawes, fresh off of leading the World Juniors in scoring while playing for Canada, scored seven goals in three road games to lead the Ice to a 2-1 record.
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