Canadian players react after their loss to the United States in the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship gold-medal game in Edmonton on Jan. 5, 2021.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Leave it to Canada and the United States to bring some normalcy to what has undoubtedly been the strangest year in sports and particularly for hockey. The friends and heated rivals squared off in the gold-medal game at the world junior championship in Edmonton on Tuesday night, concluding a traditional holiday event that came off without a hitch despite the threat of COVID-19 and an absence of spectators at Rogers Place.
That they vied for the championship was somewhat predictable, although the outcome wasn’t. The Americans beat the Canadians 2-0, dashing the dreams of the mostly 18- and 19-year-olds who had imagined they would join the likes of greats such as Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Jarome Iginla, Eric Lindros, Connor McDavid and Carey Price in winning gold.
The U.S., which lost its opening game in the tournament, got great goaltending with 33 saves from Spencer Knight to go along with a first-period goal by Alex Turcotte and another early in the second by Trevor Zegras, building a margin that proved to be insurmountable.
It is the fourth straight time the Americans have beaten Canada in the title game at the world juniors dating back to 2004. With the loss, the Canadians were foiled in an attempt to be the first team to repeat as champion since they did it in 2008-2009.
No two teams have faced each other more often at the tournament since it began in 1977. Overall, Canada has dominated the series by winning 33 of 49 games, but not recently or at the most critical times. Team USA has won six of the last nine times they have played.
No matter, their engagements are largely epic struggles and of great interest, especially north of the border.
“It’s Canada and the U.S. in the final at the world championships,” Jamie Drysdale, an 18-year-old defenceman from Toronto, said during a video conference hours before the game. “Both are very passionate hockey countries, and it makes for very good games. Any time we play, it is definitely intense. But playing for a gold-medal game brings it to a whole new level.”
A member of the Canadian team that won in 2020, he was eager for a repeat.
“It would mean the world,” he said. In October, he was selected by the Anaheim Ducks at the NHL Entry Draft. “It would be something I would never forget for the rest of my life.”
Canada appeared much the better side before the game. Nineteen of its players were chosen in the first round over the last two years. Team USA had the next most with nine. They had last faced one another on Boxing Day in 2019, where Canada pulled away at the end for a memorable 6-4 see-saw victory.
On Tuesday, they traded momentum in a fast-paced first period. Canada had the upper hand at the start, but Knight, a first-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2018, made saves on good chances by Bowen Byram, Dylan Cozens and Dawson Mercer. As the battle wore on, fierce struggles emerged over spaces as small as inches and feet on the ice.
The Americans took control later in the period, pinning Canada in its own end and at one point outshooting the Canadians 10 to 1. Turcotte, a first-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in October’s draft, deflected a wrist shot by teammate Drew Helleson over Devon Levi to put the U.S. ahead 1-0 with 6:35 left before the first intermission.
Canada got the game’s first power play late in the period but failed to score on two shots, so the Americans went to the dressing room with a one-goal advantage. It was the first time Canada had trailed during the entire tournament, and the goal was the first it allowed during five-on-five play.
It was also the first goal Levi had allowed in nearly 150 minutes. The 19-year-old from the Montreal suburbs posted three shutouts and only allowed three goals on 119 shots over the first six games of the tournament. A recent seventh-round pick of the Panthers, he entered the final against Team USA with a .975 save percentage and 0.53 goals-against average.
Zegras, a centre chosen in the first round in 2019 by Anaheim, tucked a puck past Levi only 32 seconds into the second period after the Canadian goalie lost track of a shot that banked off the boards behind his net. Zegras ended up the tournament’s leading scorer with seven goals and 18 points.
Players on both teams are familiar with one another from encounters at the world under-17 hockey challenge, the 2018 Gretzky Hlinka Cup, the 2019 IIHF U18 worlds and last year’s world juniors.
Canada was attempting to win a gold medal for the 19th time in 43 years. The win was the Americans’ fifth. Four have come at the hands of the Canadians.
“It will be a hell of a battle, extremely tight,” Canada coach André Tourigny predicted during an afternoon virtual news conference. “My message to the team is to stay in the present and be urgent in our tasks. We have to be composed and be in control. Less is more. It is important not to try to do too much.”
Team Canada put tremendous pressure on the Americans in the third period, but it turned out not be enough.