World Juniors Update: USA Claims Gold with Shootout Win Over Canada

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

After 60 minutes, it was tied 4-4. Another 20 minutes couldn't settle the score either. So after 80 minutes of competitive battle, the Gold Medal game was headed to a shootout.

Troy Terry, the hero from Wednesday's shootout win over Russia in the semi-finals, scored the lone goal on Carter Hart while Tyler Parsons stopped all five shots from Canada to help Team USA claim the gold medal with a 5-4 win over Canada on Thursday night in Montreal.

Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first as Thomas Chabot opened the scoring at 4:58 and Jeremy Lauzon added another at 9:02. Canada outshot USA, 10-6, in the first.

The second saw the game shift to Team USA. The Americans fired 13 shots to Canada's 11 and even the score at two. 

Charlie McAvoy beat Hart with a high shot at 3:04 of the period to cut the lead to one. Kieffer Bellows deflected a point shot by Adam Fox into the net on the power play at 9:30 to tie the game.

Canada turned things around again in the third, getting the next two goals in the game. Nicolas Roy scored on the power play at 1:52 to give Canada the lead again, then Mathieu Joseph scored on a breakaway just over three minutes later to open up a two-goal lead again.

But the US rallied, coming right back with a goal by Bellows just 39 seconds later to make it a one-goal game again. A deflection by Colin White off a slap pass by Fox tied the game with just under 13 minutes to play in the third.

And from there, it was the goalies show. Hart and Parsons stopped everything coming their way through some skittish moments and a hellacious 20-minute overtime. When the 80 minutes of play ended, the shot totals were 50 for Canada and 36 for the US. 

In the shootout, both goalies made saves on the first three attempts. Terry shot for the US in the fourth round and beat Hart through the five-hole. Anthony Cirelli was stopped on his attempt, taking things to the fifth and final round. Jeremy Bracco was stopped by Hart to give Canada a chance to tie, but Roy was stopped on his attempt to seal a gold-medal win for the USA.

Hart made 32 saves and four more in the shootout. Parsons stopped 46 shots and all five in the shootout.

Flyers prospect forward Tanner Laczynski was active for the game after missing Wednesday with an illness, but played just 8:17 and didn't factor into any scoring as his team claimed goal. Philippe Myers missed his third straight game with a concussion after being the victim of a late hit by USA's Luke Kunin on Saturday.

Team USA went 7-0 in the tournament. Canada's only two losses came to Team USA.

Russia Wins Bronze Medal Game

Both games required overtime on Thursday. In the Bronze Medal game held earlier in the day, Russia claimed victory with a 2-1 win in overtime.

After a scoreless first period, Russia opened the scoring with a goal by Kirill Kaprizov from Mikhail Vorobyov just 16 seconds into the second period.

Sweden tied things up midway through the second with a goal by Jonathan Dahlen.

A scoreless third period set up overtime, where 33 seconds in Denis Guryanov beat Felix Sandstrom for the game-winning goal to give Russia the bronze.

Sandstrom made 24 saves in the loss, just his second of the tournament. Vorobyov's assist gave him 10 for the tournament, leading all players. David Bernhardt played 17:10 and had two shots on goal in the loss. 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov was out for the second straight game with a suspected concussion.

Sandstrom was also given the Directorate Award for being the tournament's best goaltender.

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