Canada Wins Junior Gold in Edmonton

 

Photo From CP24

What an incredible finish to this summers World Junior tournament. Last night Canada faced off against team Finland. Heading into this matchup when it came to meetings in the medal round Finland held a record of 4-3 against the Canadians but this would be their first ever game against each other for the gold medal. To get here Canada had beaten Czechia in the semifinals by a score of 5-2 and Finland shutout their long-time rivals Sweden 1-0. When this tournament started the Canada games had good but not great sized crowds but as the tournament carried on the crowds started to grow and if you watched this final, which I am sure a lot of you did, but you would have heard a Canadian crowd that we are used to hearing as the attendance reported for this game was 13000 and those who were lucky enough to see the game in person watched one that fans will be talking about for a very long time.

Starting in goal for the Canadian squad would be Dylan Garand who took the net from Cossa after his win against Slovakia, their second preliminary game and for Finland they would give the start to Juha Jatkola who prior to the semi final round had only started in a game against Slovakia which Finland would win by a score of 9-3. He had been the backup for most of the tournament before the coach suddenly decided to name him the teams starter for the semi final against Sweden.

Right from the opening face off the crowd was alive for this one and their energy was felt because they would react after every hit thrown on a Finland player as well as every shot on goal. Canada would feed off the crowd’s energy as they would begin the game registering the games first eight shots forcing Finland’s starter to make some big early saves. The opening period would see the officials allow the players to set the tone of the game and how things would go which in a tournament final is good to see because a lot of the time especially at the international level the officials try to take the spotlight from the players by calling every sing infraction they see. Canada as I said fed off the crowd’s energy and would collect scoring chance after scoring chance, but we would have to wait untill halfway through the first period for the scoring to open. Canada would have the puck in their opponent’s zone as Mason McTavish would take the puck around the Fins net but his wrap around attempt would be turned aside, thankfully a rebound would fall onto the stick of Joshua Roy and he would chip the puck into the net for the games all important opening goal. With the assist McTavish would have his tournament point total climb to 16 leaving him just two points away from matching the all-time tournament total of 18 set by Dale McCourt who set the record back in 1977 in what was known as Czechoslovakia. Canada would continue to press for more, but Jatkola would stand tall keeping Canada’s lead at 1-0 after the first twenty minutes of action.

The host Canadians would double their lead and they would need just forty-one seconds to do so as William Dufour would receive a drop pass from Olen Zellweger and then fire a wrist shot by the blocker of Jatkola giving Canada a well deserved 2-0 lead. With Canada seemingly taking control of the game we would then see Finland begin a steady parade to the penalty box as Canada would head to the powerplay five consecutive times. Now, all tournament the Canadian powerplay had been dangerous that it untill tonight. Canada would sadly be unable to find the back of the net on all five of these powerplays missing a huge opportunity to put a strangle hold on their opponent and putting the game out of reach for Finland. Despite not scoring on their many powerplays Canada would still lead this game 2-0 but anyone who knows this game knows a 2-0 lead is the worst lead in hockey and it simply because the teams that has the lead at times doesn’t know to keep pressing or to sit back and defend and often the team trailing would score a quick goal which would then rattle the leading team. In this case although Canada led the game after two periods you could see Finland’s confidence continued to grow thanks to their perfect penalty kill, and there was no doubt we were going to be set for an interesting third period. For those who may not be aware the head coach for team Canada was Dave Cameron. He was behind the bench for Canada as head coach back in 2011 when the tournament took place in Buffalo. In that tournament Canada would cruise to the final where they met team Russia who was a very talented team as well. Coach Cameron’s team Canada had a 3-0 lead heading into the third period where Vladimir Tarasenko and Russia would score five unanswered goals to win the gold medal leaving the Buffalo crowd in a stunned silence. I bring up that little history lesson because the third period in this final would see the game completely turn in the favour of Finland. Throughout the tournament Canada’s issue of constantly icing the puck had been talked about a lot and last night would be no different. With a little under five minutes played A faceoff would be in Canada’s end of the rink because of yet another icing call. Canada would lose the draw and Finland would capitalize because Canada was unable to clear the zone. The puck would be at the point where Eemil Viro would send a pass to his defense partner Aleksi Heimosalmi would send a wrist shot by a screened Garand. Finland would now be trailing 2-1. Finland began playing with a spark and Canada would begin searching for ways to regain control of the game. Sadly, for Canada their lead would evaporate with ten minutes played as Topi Niemela would send a perfect pass to Joakim Kemell whose one timed shot would beat a sprawling Garand and the game would be tied at two. With momentum clearly in the favour of the under-dog Fins you could sense the nervous energy in both the players and the crowd, but Canada would head to the powerplay for the sixth time, but their struggles would continue, and the game would remain level at two. Finland would remain in control, and they would head to the powerplay for the first-time putting Canada on their heels. The man advantage would not last long for Finland because a little over a minute later Finland would be called for boarding giving Canada a massive chance to win this game on the powerplay in the final five minutes of regulation. Canada’s powerplay would remain ice cold as they were not able to score yet again and although Canada had managed twelve powerplay shots they would finish the evening 0-7 with the man advantage. Regulation would expire and we would need overtime to decide who wins this game.

Now, the overtime would be very intense and stressful because Finland would pick up the first few chances, Finland would come in on a three on one, but Garand would make the save and for a reason that only he would know he decided not to freeze the puck instead he chose to play the puck behind the net to McTavish but he would fall allowing Finland to regain possession with Garand swimming in his crease and the net wide open the puck would end up sailing toward the open goal before Mason McTavish made the play of the tournament by knocking the puck down and off the goal line and by an absolute miracle this game would remain tied as Canada began to leave the zone. Team Canada would counter with a two on one rush as Logan Stankoven would carry the puck before sending a backhand pass to Kent Johnson who would see his first shot stopped but he was determined to finish the play so he stayed with it and ended up chipping the puck into the net and Kent Johnson, someone who has already had quite the international career representing Canada at the Men’s World Championship, the Olympics, and the World Juniors all in the same year scores the Golden goal and Canada wins this thrilling game by a score of 3-2.

So, that’s it the fastest ten days has finished up and the 2022 World Juniors have come to an end with Canada winning their fourth Championship in ten years. I also must mention that during the celebration on the ice in the arena they played La Bamba the favorite song of Joey Moss the long-time staff member of the Oilers who passed away a few years ago but it was also the favorite song of Oilers super fan Ben Stelter who lost his battle with cancer last week. I thought the playing of that song was a great tribute for two people who were an important part of the Edmonton Oilers community. The World Juniors will return to their regular start date of December 26^th and the tournament will be held in both Halifax and Moncton. Canada will be in Group A with Sweden, Czechia, Germany, and Austria and those games will be played in Halifax. The next event on the international calendar for Canada is the Women’s World Championships in Denmark where Canada will begin the defense of their Championship Thursday afternoon against Finland.

That’s all for this article thanks as always for reading and I should have mentioned it last week but rest peacefully Oiler superfan Ben.

Photo From People.com