Go USA! USA leading with 4-0 after two periods against a passive Canadian team in the semifinals. Later today sweden will meet Russia in the second semifinal.
It will not be easy to beat Russia in Russia but hopefully we will win and meet USA in the final...

End. 5-1, USA. A well deserved victory. Now, USA will be favorites to win the gold. Canada out.

I remember a few years ago, probably around the time of the 2010 Olympics, during a debate about the relative merits of European hockey vs. North American hockey, I pointed out the fact that, at the time, Canada had won the last five consecutive World Junior titles. Someone (maybe it was you?) assured me that no one outside of Canada cared about the World Juniors. Judging by the amount of action this thread has gotten, I guess they (you?) were right, hey?

Since I'm a good sport, though, I'll bump it for you. And I'll happily congratulate the U.S. and Swedish teams, both of whom are obviously full value for their victories. May the best team win.

And, not to be pedantic, but Canada is not actually "out", they're playing Russia for the bronze medal. Again, may the best team win.

Greetings to you too, Andrew! I can't honestly remember what I said on this forum two years ago but if it's important to you I can take credit for the things you said. Maybe the increased interest in the junior WC has to do with the fact that the senior WC has been severly watered down for decades. The best players are bought off by the NHL and they are busy with the NHL Play-Offs until late June. On the junior WC most teams are relatively intact which makes the competition ever so more interesting. Even though it's of course a Pyrrhus victory for European (or Euro-Asian; Russia) teams to actually win it. Apparently every player on the Swedish team are already signed to NHL teams. So we will never see them playing in our own league. It doesn't matter if the NHL decides to play hockey or not: We won't see them anyhow.

As I understand it the new policy in North-American hockey is not to play league ice-hockey. I really don't know why they have come to this conclusion that not to play ice-hockey is the best thing to do for the players and the audience. But I'm sure they know what they are doing and the public seems to be fine with that decision. It wouldn't have been possible over here, I'll tell you that though.

Anyway, back to the competition. I do hope for the Swedes to win but I will write down their chances to 1/3. I'm afraid our stats against the USA on junior level aren't that good. But I will surely root for them!

Congratulations to the gold USA. They won 3-1 (last goal in open cage) as I anticipated. Their goalie was better than ours. That made the difference in the final. Sweden silver, Russia bronze and Canada fourth place.

This tourney is pretty big in Canada and a very disappointing result for Canada. First time in 14 years that we haven't won any medal. More interest due to the current NHL lockout. Our goaltending wasn't the greatest.

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Stoneage
Congratulations to the gold USA. They won 3-1 (last goal in open cage) as I anticipated. Their goalie was better than ours. That made the difference in the final. Sweden silver, Russia bronze and Canada fourth place.

Nice to see somebody playing hockey. Doesn't look like their is going to be an NHL season this year.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

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DGA35
This tourney is pretty big in Canada and a very disappointing result for Canada. First time in 14 years that we haven't won any medal. More interest due to the current NHL lockout. Our goaltending wasn't the greatest.

Yeah, we seem to be struggling to develop good young goalies the last few years. I feel kinda bad for those kids, though, because the media in this country puts so much pressure on them. Anyway, congrats to the U.S. team.