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VIDEO: Elias Pettersson throws massive hits in a 5-4 comeback loss to fellow Canucks prospect Jackson Dorrington

We are back with more coverage of the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects in action at the World Junior Summer Showcase.

Our first game to cover today is USA Blue vs Sweden as the two left-shot defencemen go head-to-head with Elias Pettersson (D-Petey) playing second-pairing for Sweden and Jackson Dorrington coming in on USA Blue’s third pairing.

D-Petey was saddled with 2022 second-round pick of the San Jose Sharks, Mattias Hävelid.

Dorrington was partnered up with Chicago Blackhawks’ 2022 first-round pick Sam Rinzel.

This is the final game of the tournament for both Dorrington and D-Petey and we saw D-Petey come out strong.

D-Petey kicked off the game with a big hit in the corner after both teams found paydirt quickly in this game. He continues to show his physical dominance in this tournament as the big Swedish defenceman has been throwing his body around all throughout the WJSS.

There were a lot more minutes on the penalty kill for D-Petey as Sweden went to the box early in the first period. Even with all the penalty troubles, Sweden took a stranglehold early in the game and built up a 4-1 lead by the time we went to the first intermission.

Dorrington had a quiet period but it seems like that’s just his game. He’s very much the secondary puck-mover on his pairing with the offensive Rinzel skating alongside Dorrington. He just isn’t a loud player but we will try to clip some of the good quick things that Dorrington does, a lot of the plays just don’t seem like highlights but they certainly help his team.

You could see D-Petey starting to get into a groove early in the second period, he already looked better than he did on Wednesday and was using his physicality to lead his game. D-Petey had an active stick and was doing a great job of evaluating where USA was consistently bringing pressure. D-Petey was playing a bit high at times but he was doing a great job shutting down the slot shots that USA was looking for.

The Americans continued to get power play opportunities and though that was good for them, it was not great for Dorrington’s ice time, which slipped in the second period due to the power plays.

USA pushed back on another power play goal with 12:09 remaining in the second period and Sweden saw their 4-1 lead cut down to a 4-3 lead. It should be noted that Filip Bystedt, who is a Sharks 2022 first-round pick had a natural hat-trick in the first period of the game. He was going to the net hard and earning his goals in the game.

Dorrington had his named called in the middle of the second period but it wasn’t for a good reason. He took a tripping call in a one-goal game to put Sweden on the power play.

The second period saw the minutes tick off the clock while Dorrington watched from the bench as we didn’t notice him on the ice at all after taking the tripping penalty.

After 40 minutes, we were set up for a fun third period with Sweden holding on to a one-goal lead.

More good defensive plays from D-Petey in the third period. He just stays so calm and uses his physicality to gain possessions for Sweden.

The USA tied up the game with 13:12 remaining in the third period but who cares about the score, here’s D-Petey almost putting an American into the bench with a hit.

D-Petey was seeing his minutes rise as he had arguably been Sweden’s best defenceman up to this point in the game. On the other side of things, Dorrington was seeing his minutes drop as the Americans began to feed their top-four defencemen a ton of minutes in an attempt to complete the big comeback.

The game went right down to the final second and USA ended up taking the win with a goal from Sharks draft pick, Quinten Musty

Friday was Elias Pettersson’s best game of the showcase. He defended extremely well throughout the game and was far and away the most physical player in the game.

As for Dorrington, we didn’t see his physical play shine in the game and the penalty he took seemed to be the end of him receiving consistent shifts.

Neither of the Canucks found the scoresheet, even though it looks like they made a mistake on the website and gave Dorrington an assist on the first USA goal of the game. This was not the case and should be changed if they haven’t already corrected it by now.

That wraps up the tournament for both Pettersson and Dorrington, we were on vacation for the first half of the tournament, so we will go back and watch those games and do similar articles to what we’ve done over the past few days here covering this tournament.

We’ve got one game left and we hope to see Hunter Brzustewicz in the lineup for USA White as they battle with Finland.

This article first appeared on Canucksarmy and was syndicated with permission.

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