Alex Turcotte (Wisconsin) deflected home a shot midway through the first period tonight, and Trevor Zegras (Boston University) put in a rebound early in the second stanza to lift the United States to a 2-0 win over host Canada in the gold medal game of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton, Alberta.
Spencer Knight (Boston College) finished with 34 saves for the Americans in recording his third shutout of the tournament, and earned U.S. Player of the Game accolades. Zegras, who also assisted on Turcotte's goal, finished as the event's top scorer with seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points, and was named tournament MVP as the U.S. won its first WJC title since 2017, and fifth overall.
Team USA was guided this year by head coach Nate Leaman (Providence), who became the third American head coach to win a WJC gold medal and an NCAA championship in his career.
Other NCAA-trained members of this year's USA title team included Matthew Boldy (Boston College), Matthew Beniers (Michigan), Brett Berard (Providence), Bobby Brink (Denver), Brendan Brisson (Michigan), Cole Caufield (Wisconsin), Sam Colangelo (Northeastern), Brock Faber (Minnesota), John Farinacci (Harvard), Drew Helleson (Boston College), Ryan Johnson (Minnesota), Tyler Kleven (North Dakota), Jackson LaCombe (Minnesota), Patrick Moynihan (Providence), Jake Sanderson (North Dakota), Landon Slaggert (Notre Dame), Logan Stein (Ferris State), Henry Thrun (Harvard) and team captain Cameron York (Michigan).
Devon Levi (Northeastern) made 19 stops for 2020 champion Canada, which had outscored its WJC opponents this year by a 41-4 count prior to the gold medal game. Also on Canada's roster with NCAA experience were Alex Newhook (Boston College) and Dylan Holloway (Wisconsin).
Finland, the 2019 WJC champion, defeated Russia, 4-1, earlier on Tuesday in the bronze medal game to place third this year. Canada will host next year's event in both Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.
No comments:
Post a Comment