The United States won the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship by defeating Sweden 6-2 on Friday in Gothenburg.
This is the sixth time that the Americans have won top honors in this prestigious competition and a first victory since the 2017 edition.
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Isaac Howard was the one who sounded the charge for the winners in this match without a future. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect scored twice in the second period.
His first goal, scored by sliding the puck between the legs of goalkeeper Hugo Havelid, allowed his team to take the lead again. Howard then caught the Swedish masked man from a tight angle. This net turned out to be the victory, as Jonathan Lekkerimaki reduced the gap to one goal before the end of the second period.
Otto Stenberg had created the tie in the first moments of this period, while Gabriel Perreault was the one who opened the scoring in favor of the Americans in the first twenty.
A dream
Defender Zeev Buium gave the winners a two-goal lead in the third period and Ryan Leonard put an end to the hopes of the fans present by hitting the target in the final minutes of the match. Perreault obtained assists on these two successes. Rutger McGroarty completed the scoring into an empty net.
Coming back to Howard, these were his sixth and seventh goals of the tournament. He thus finished at the top of the competition’s scorers, tied with Lekkerimaki.
“This is an absolutely incredible moment,” Howard told TSN. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I love all my teammates with love. We did the job brilliantly.”
“This is the type of moment you dream of and it’s unreal,” he added of his two goals.
Another disappointment
It’s number 12e times in 14 finals that the Swedes have to settle for the silver medal. The Scandinavian country’s last triumph dates back to 2012. Furthermore, the club failed in its bid to win in its home country for a seventh time on as many occasions. It was also the third time that Sweden played the final in front of its fans.
Obviously very frustrated by the situation at the end of the match, the Swedes decided to shake up the cage of future gold medalists. This allowed Montreal Canadiens fans to see what prospect Lane Hutson is made of. The defender spent the last seconds of the game celebrating in the locker room, before returning to celebrate on the ice with his teammates.
“We’ve been through a lot during this tournament,” Hutson said. It’s really special to celebrate this moment. There is no one who has given up on this team.
Hutson was elected to the World Championship All-Star team, like his teammate Cutter Gauthier. The other hockey players selected for this individual honor are the Czech Jiri Kulich, as well as the Swedes Havelid, Theo Lindstein and Lekkerimaki. The latter was also crowned player par excellence of the competition.