After an overtime win against Czechia on Jan 5, the Canadian national junior team won back-to-back gold medals. In fact, history repeated itself as Canada won this tournament last year in overtime as well.
Tournament Awards
Now that the world juniors are over, awards are given out.
- Best Foward: Connor Bedard, Canada
- Best Goaltender: Adam Gajan, Slovakia
- Best Defensemen: David Jiricek, Czechia
The media gets to choose the all-tournament teams.
- Goaltender: Tomas Suchanek, Czechia
- Defense: David Jiricek, Czechia and Ludvig Jansson, Sweden
- Forwards: Connor Bedard, Canada; Logan Cooley USA and Jiri Kulich, Czechia
Recap: Canada Wins Gold Medal Game
Canada had to start the game off with a very early penalty kill as Nathan Gaucher was called for interference less than two minutes into the game. Dylan Guenther who was drafted ninth overall in 2021 by the Arizona Coyotes scored the overtime winner. Guenther was the one to get Canada on the board first. He was able to score on a one-timer while being on a power-play. This Canadian team has many goal scorers on their power play which made this easier for them to get on the board. Canada’s captain Shane Wright was celebrating his 19th birthday today. He got Canada on the board next with a backhand shot right under the crossbar and made it 2-0. The crowd even started singing ” Happy Birthday” to him.
Late in the third period Czechia was able to tie the game as Jiri Kulich and Jakub Kos scored two goals less than a minute apart. In overtime, Czechia had many great chances but Thomas Milic made huge saves for Canada. Milic ended the game with 24 saves, which meant he had his best two games last night as well as today.
Canada now holds the record for 20 goal medal wins in the World Junior Championships. This is their first back-to-back win since 2005-09 when they won five straight.
With Czechia winning the silver medal, this is their first medal since 2005.
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