Canada’s hockey national team won the World Junior Championship this Sunday, defeating Russia in a stunning finale, 4-3.
The Russian side had a 3-1 but managed to lose this contest in the late part of the closing period. It is one o the best comebacks ever made at the World Junior Championship, especially when we have in mind that Canada lost against the same opponent 6-0 a week before tonights’ win.
“Storybook ending,” said Joel Hofer Canada’s goalie and the best one in the entire tournament.
Russia was up one goal after Nikita Alexandrov’s power-play goals, but the result was tied less than a minute and a half later through Dylan Cozens. Grigori Denisenko brought back the edge to the Russian side, shortly after that and Maxim Sorkin doubled the lead at 8:46 of the third.
Thirty-four seconds after that started one of the best comebacks in the history of Canadian hockey. Connor McMichael decreased the gap, and injured hero Barrett Hayton leveled the situation on the ice. It was a huge boost of the morale for him and his guys who completely turned the tables with 3:58 to go when Akil Thomas, scored his only goal in this tournament but the one worth gold.
“Game is 60 minutes. Russia played 55,” Yegor Zamula, Russian defenceman, stated disappointed after the event.
The hero of the match was Hayton. He injured his shoulder, was ruled out for this match (for several weeks to be exact), but despite all the recommendations forced his way into this match. The doctors did their best to make him available, by mixing up cocktails and cocktails of painkillers, bandaging the area. Meanwhile, his Arizona Coyotes allowed him to play respecting the wish of their player even though that was a risky move. After all, Hayton is their stake for the future, and losing him long-term wouldn’t be good at all for the franchise from Glendale.
“He wasn’t going to be denied,” Canada’s general manager Mark Hunter said when explaining the mindset and the will of his captain. “We were going to have to use handcuffs to handcuff him to the dressing room, that’s how much he wanted to play.”
Probably the future No.1 pick in the upcoming draft, Alexis Lafreniere, received the MVP honors. Throughout the entire tournament, he collected 10 points, scoring four goals and assisting 6 times, two of those assists came in the finals. He was also the best forward of the tournament.
Hofer was the best goalie, as he allowed just nine goals in 148 shots. Rasmus Sandin was the best defenceman. All the four players mentioned above were elected to the Media All-Star team along with Alexander Romanov from Russia, and Samuel Fagemo from Sweden, who had the most points in this tournament. The LA Kings players scored 8 goals and had 5 assists.
Also, the 2021 WJC groups were made. Canada plays in Edmonton against Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Germany. Group B in Red Deer is a bit tougher, Russia, the United States, Sweden, the Czech Republic, and Austria.
