Montreal Canadiens: Josh Brook and Jesse Ylonen produce for their teams

The World Juniors is in its pre-tournament stage, and Montreal Canadiens prospects Josh Brook and Jesse Ylonen have found their way on the scoresheet already

It’ll still be another week before the grand event takes place in British Columbia. However, the national teams taking part in the 2019 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships have already begun to prepare for the tournament via exhibition games. And luckily for the Montreal Canadiens, three of their prospects played a role in their team’s victories.

Josh Brook, Nick Suzuki and Jesse Ylonen were in action for Canada and Finland respectively for the first time in the pre-tournament schedule. Suzuki centred the second line between Janet Anderson-Dolan and 2020 NHL Draft phenom Alexis Lafrenière while Brook was on the second pairing next to Edmonton Oilers first-round pick Noah Dobson.

Suzuki got things started for Canada taking the ceremonial face-off ahead of regulation and proceeded to have a decent game for Canada. His line brought more of a physical presence to the team, but the team still had their chances to score against Switzerland.

One of which came when it was a 4-1 hockey game seeing Dobson find Suzuki right in front of the net. He managed to pull the puck to his backhand despite the lack of space thanks to the defending player and the Swiss goaltender. Suzuki was stopped, but it’s plays such as those that he’s able to make in-tight situations which make him a prospect the Montreal Canadiens should continuously be excited about.

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Brook, on the other hand, made his offensive presence known very early on. It unfortunately came at the expense of Canada giving up the first goal of the game. The 2017 third-round pick got the secondary assist on Cody Glass’ backhand tying goal. Secondary assists aren’t a lot to celebrate, but Brook’s pinch along the boards and pass to Maxime Comtois were key to the play.

It wasn’t all perfect for the young defenceman. Switzerland’s second goal could’ve been better handled by Brook as a miscue had him up-ice preventing him from being able to defend against Valentin Nussbaumer who was partially alone to make it 4-2.

But it was their first game, and they should all do better.

Finland had a positive night as well shutting out Denmark 7-0. Ylonen got on the scoresheet three times with a goal and two assists. His first came on the power play as the second unit, along with 2019 top prospect Kaapo Kukko, tied the game. Ylonen later added another secondary assist on Santeri Virtanen’s second-period goal before scoring one for himself with seven minutes left in the third.

Things are just getting started at the World Juniors for the Montreal Canadiens youth. Team USA play on Thursday night which could Ryan Poehling and Cayden Primeau in action while Jacob Olofsson may see some ice on Saturday against Denmark.

Perhaps they all have decent impacts on their team ahead of the Boxing Day opening.