World Junior FINALS Recap: Canada wins gold, Silver Russia, Sweden gets bronze, and Germany survives to be in Edmonton in 2021

Regulation Game FINAL: Kazakhstan’s luck runs out, Germany will return in 2021

The statement game is often thrown around, but man if it didn’t feel like Deutschland finally got on their horse and reminded people what they were here to stay.

Spielnotizen:

• Kazakhstan played scrappy, had some young talent with genuine promise, and was even able to get a W in a game they badly needed...But this was their moment of truth. And sometimes the truth says “Germany is just better than you”. And today? they were, and that’s where they got their relegation.
• Germany showed a lot of promise this tournament but couldn’t make it congeal. Today, they looked clearly like a team too good to be in the relegation conversation. I hope they have a better tourney next year.
• A highly germanic 2021 awaits us in Edmonton, as Austria, Switzerland, and Germany all in the same tournament (though not the same group, because the IIHF cares about lame things like “competitive balance” and “seeding”. Nerds.)

Bronze Medal Game: Sweden survives Finnish onslaught to medal in 3-2 win!

Don’t call it a comeback, They’ve been here for years.

Spel Anteckningar:

• Sweden got hammered by shots in a way they hadn’t been all tournament, but they rallied in the 2nd period in such a way that they could merely hang on and win through their bread and butter; defense. It was a marvel of a 3rd to watch. Grattis!
• Finland man. They can do everything right and still lose. Well, except for the thing Finland tended to get dinged with over the past couple of World Juniors; and that was penalties during important games. Their last two games had them pile up minutes late and that’s what likely kept them from getting enough chances to tie it. They’ll be back, though. And woe unto anyone who sufficiently pisses off a Finn.

Gold Medal Game: Akil Thomas completes the comeback as Canada rushes back from 3-1 to win 4-3.

Never in doubt. Never, ever in doubt.

Game Notes:

• Russia probably had this right up until the Barret Hayton goal. Then they spent the entire rest of game playing on the backcheck which was a bad idea. Especially against this Canada team that’s been supercharged since Lafrieniere made it back from injury.
• Akil Thomas is gonna be in TSN’s graphics packages until he dies. Kings fans should be happy with the way that young fella’s turning out.
• Canada’s feeling it. Congrats, those north of the border!

Groups for 2021 in Edmonton/Red Deer:

Group A (playing in Edmonton)

• Canada
• Finland
• Switzerland
• Slovakia
• Germany

Group B (playing in Red Deer)

• Russia
• Sweden
• USA
• Czech Republic
• Austria

Congrats to Canada, thank you for reading these, and we’ll get back to Boston Bruins hockey!