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2019 World Juniors FINALS RECAP: Russia wins Bronze handily, and Finland snaps a late tie to win gold

The finals are in, only one could win gold. And what a game it was.

By SkyonAir
The IIHF feed, but @pienirinkula for the screengrab.

Bronze Medal Game: Russia pulls away with Kirill Slepets Hat Trick to win 5-2

Give the Swiss credit, they never gave up, but as is usually the case, the Russians let their crop of superstars take over and they overtook Die Eisgenossen.

Game Notes:

  • Once again, all marks to Christian Wohlwend’s work as Swiss coach. If they even get one more quality player under their belt, they’re medaling. He’s gotten them to such a great point and his boys could stand to be rewarded.
  • Switzerland might take a noticeable tumble next year. A vast portion of their squad is 19, including a lot of their big players like Kurashev and Eggenberger. Their development programs should be on high alert to find new guys for the foreseeable future.
  • Klim Kostin is kind of a prick but I appreciate he was willing to tell the Canadian fans to stuff it. We need more heels in this sport.
  • Bruins Prospect Update: Pavel Shen goes home to the Ufa system (it’s the name of a team, not being a free agent) with Bronze after a 15 minute TOI night without much in the way of points. Not a bad WJC for this young man after going...completely otherwise unnoticed after his drafting.

Gold Medal Game: Finland briefly gets tied towards the end of the game but Kaapo Kakko breaks it to get Leijonat it’s third gold medal since 2010

A slight note of honesty, this game looked like it was Finland’s from period one, and it almost seemed destined to be that way until the USA’s third period acumen came barreling through like a coked out semi driver through the unsuspecting window of a Denny’s at 4:30am CT and made this game interesting. The US suddenly came to life and became a

...For about ten minutes. Then your (projected) 2nd Overall pick of 2019 decided to put a direct stop to that, and Finland got the gold.

Game Notes:

  • Neither Side got penalized for anything in the third as the US spent the vast majority of it trying their damnedest to cobble a come-from-behind win together. And because of that, Finland had the lion’s share of the shots through 2 periods, and caught the Americans at their own game.
  • While the Americans did their best, ultimately that old bad habit of “not utilizing the whole 60 minutes of gametime efficiently” came back to haunt them in a big way. Their stars however definitely look like stars to watch...even if some of them may be going to the NHL like...tomorrow. Good luck with that, I guess.
  • Bruins Prospect Update: Kyle Keyser goes home to Oshawa with a Silver necklace, he did not play this game. Urho Vaakanainen on the other hand, will probably return to Providence with gold on his resume and on his neck. I guessed he’d play around 23 minutes, and he one-upped me by going 25:08 TOI. He didn’t contribute to the score.

Final Bruins Prospect Update:

Gold Medalist: Urho Vaakanainen

Silver Medalist: Kyle Keyser

Bronze Medalist: Pavel Shen

Quarterfinal Exits: Jack Studnicka, Jakub Lauko, Daniel Bukac

DNQ for Post-Prelims: N/A

2020 World Juniors Groups:

Group A:

  • Finland
  • Kazakhstan
  • Sweden
  • Slovakia
  • Switzerland

Initial Impressions: Sweden’s probably going to be out for blood next year and this group isn’t helping that.

Group B:

  • USA
  • Canada
  • Russia
  • Germany
  • Czech Republic

Initial Impressions: Germany better come out of the gate swinging or they are toast.