Canada captures gold on home ice

Team Canada secured another gold medal last night thanks to an overtime winner from Edmonton product Dylan Guenther. They did not make it easy on themselves after Czechia clawed their way back from 2-0 down late in the third to extend the game.

The scoring began in the first period by the Canadians. The overtime hero, Dylan Guenther fired a strong wrist shot by Tomas Suchanek on the powerplay going bar down. Canada’s lead was extended early in the second period by the birthday boy Shane Wright. Wright dangled his way through the Czechia defence and then sent a backhander over Suchanek’s shoulder.

While Canada maintain a good game for most of the 60 minutes, Czechia was not rolling over. The Swedes felt the full effect of that in the semi-finals when the Czechs came from behind to win in overtime. Jiri Kulich started the comeback with his seventh goal of the World Juniors which was then quickly followed by Jakub Kos to tie the game.

Czechia put the onslaught onto Canada in the final minutes but nothing would split the teams in 60 minutes.

After end-to-end attacks from both teams, Canada would find the breakthrough. Brandt Clarke sent a stretch pass to Guenther and Joshua Roy on a two-on-one breakaway and the two of them did the rest. Roy put a pass onto the tape of Guenther, who did the rest.

To nobody’s surprise, Connor Bedard won the MVP award after an outstanding tournament which saw him set the record for most points by a Canadian at the World Juniors. Bedard was also named to the World Juniors All Star team alongside Logan Cooley (USA), Jiri Kulich (Czechia), Ludvig Jansson (Sweden), David Jiricek (Czechia) and Tomas Suchanek (Czechia).

With the win, Canada captures their 20th World Junior gold medal and the first time they have won back-to-back golds since 2009. Next year’s tournament will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, as Canada will look for their third gold in a row.