Canadians Beat Russians for World Juniors Gold Medal

After a five year gold medal drought, the Canadian national U-20 junior hockey team narrowly captured the world junior championship against Russia in last night’s tournament finale.

Canada was able to build a 4-0 lead in the second period and was barely able to hold on for a final score of 5-4. “We didn’t panic or certainly tried not to panic,” said Sam Reinhart.

There were moments of panic and even a flashback to the final four years ago where the same Russian opponent took advantage of an unimaginable collapse by the Canadian team that gave the Russians the gold. It wasn’t easy, but the Canadian’s prevailed ending a drought that dated to 2009.

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Winning gold on their home ice at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, several Canadian players locked arms on the blue line and sang along with “O Canada” wearing their hard earned gold medals around their necks.

“We’re world junior champions, we’re world champions. It’s a joy,” said Connor McDavid. “We were never really under pressure. The media and all the fans might’ve been putting that pressure on us, but we were just able to brush it off. Right now this is just absolute joy.”

McDavid was Canada’s superstar and is likely to be the number one draft pick in the NHL this year. He scored a goal in the gold medal game and ended the tournament with three goals, 11 overall points and a plus-8 rating in seven games played during the WJC.

Other goal scorers for Canada in the final include Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Nick Paul and Sam Reinhart. Reinhart was drafted to the Buffalo Sabres in 2014. The other three goal scorers were all drafted in 2013: Domi by the Arizona Coyotes, Paul by the Ottawa Senators and Duclair by the New York Rangers.