World Junior Triumph

By: Adamo Marinelli

January 6th, 2020

     For the second time in three World Junior tournaments, team Canada brought home the gold medal. Canada finished 3-1 in the preliminary round after beating the US 6-4, losing 6-0 to Russia, beating Germany 4-1 and beating the Czech Republic 7-2. They then dominated Slovakia 6-1 in the quarter-finals, steamrolled Finland 5-0 in the semi-finals and scored three third period goals to overcome a 3-1 deficit and beat Russia 4-3. A thrilling victory for Canada, whose only loss in the tournament was a 6-0 rout at the hands of the Russians. 

     Canada’s forward, Alexis Lafreniere was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, the Best Forward and a Tournament All-Star Team Member after recording 4 goals and 6 assists in 5 games played. He missed the second and third preliminary games with a knee injury. 

     This is arguably Canada’s best team, including Lafreniere, Veleno, Foote, Byfield, Hayton, Cousins, McMichael, and Thomas at forward, McIsaac, Bernard-Docker, Byram, and Drysdale as defensemen. Nico Daws and Joel Hofer played incredible in net the entire tournament, giving up only 11 goals, excluding the preliminary game against Russia. 

     This year’s NHL draft is arguably Canada’s best year of developing NHL ready prospects after the United States and Sweden dominated the 2019 and 2018 drafts respectively. Alexis Lafreniere, Quenton Byfield, Cole Perfetti, and Jamie Drysdale - all 4 players are Canadians - are projected to go in the top 5. Canada also has the majority of the prospects in the draft for the first time since 2017 and more prospects than the US, Finland Sweden combined, all excellent countries at developing amazing hockey players. 

     After Finland upset Canada 2-1 in overtime in last year’s quarterfinal game, the team knew with all the talent they had, the mentality would be different. They were playing for gold. After winning their group in dominant fashion - a group that consisted of several powerhouse teams like Russia, the United States, and the Czech Republic - even with a few crucial injuries including a knee injury to their star player Lafreniere, they proceeded to dominate Slovakia 6-1 in the quarters and get revenge on Finland in the semis, shutting them out 5-0. They had a golden opportunity for a gold medal and revenge against Russia, who routed Canada 6-0 in the preliminary round. 

     There was no shortage of controversies for Canada during the tournament. First off, Alexis Lafreniere, the projected #1 pick in the 2020 NHL draft, left the preliminary game against Russia with a knee injury and many thought Team Canada’s chances at gold were finished. Secondly, Canadian captain, Barrett Hayton did not remove his helmet for the Russian national anthem after the 6-0 loss. Thirdly, in the same game, center Joe Veleno, a force in the faceoff circle and a key part of Canada’s powerplay and penalty kill was given a one-game suspension for a clean hit against a Russian defenceman. The officials thought Veleno hit the Russian defender’s head, which explains the suspension, but he clearly hit his shoulder. Canada responded well to this controversy, winning their next 4 games in dominant fashion and booking a spot in the finals.

     Despite all of this controversy, Canada still had a chance for revenge and the gold medal against a bitter rival in the Russians. There was one problem. Team Canada wasn't sure that their whole roster would be healthy for the gold medal game. Canadian captain Barrett Hayton was questionable to play in the gold medal game after crashing into the boards hard in the semi-finals. It wasn’t until the morning of the gold medal game that he was cleared to play. Canada started off slow, both teams got into penalty trouble and Russia took a 2-1 lead into the third period before quickly made it 3-1 in the third period. Powered by their dominant power play that scored twice in the game and their elite talent on offense and defense, McMichael and Hayton scored to tie the game 3-3. And with less than 4 minutes left, an unlikely hero, forward Akil Thomas made a great play to outspeed a Russian defender, deke around the goalie and bury the puck into the net to take a 4-3 lead and secure the win. 

     With all the talent on Team Canada and all the amazing Canadian prospects prepping for the 2020 draft, this was Canada’s year to win the gold medal. They did just that with one of the most dominant teams in World Junior history. They had a lot of depth and a lot of talent on offense, defense and in net and were motivated to get revenge after last year’s disappointing early exit.