Going for the Gold
Posted on January 04, 2013The 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship (played in Ufa, Russia) draws to a close tomorrow with the bronze medal and gold medal games. Canada faces Russia in the bronze medal game with puck drop at 4 a.m. for you early risers. The main event, of course, is the gold medal game between
Team USA and Sweden. That one faces off at 8 a.m. Team USA will be gunning for its third ever gold medal in the tournament’s 37-year history. Sweden will also be seeking its third gold medal. The Swedes will be seeking to repeat; they won the 2012 WJC tournament.
Team USA comes into the gold medal game on the heels of a convincing 5-1 win over Canada in Thursday’s semi-final game. The Americans have lost two of the six games they’ve played in the tournament – to Russia and Canada in round-robin play – and were on the short end of 2-1 scores in each of those setbacks. Team USA boasts an overall goal differential of 31-8. That differential is 21-4 in the last three games.
Team USA goaltender John Gibson has been superb throughout the tournament. He is 4-2 with a .954 save pct. and a 1.42 GAA. Gibson has stopped 167 of the 175 shots he has faced, and he has surrendered just five even-strength goals in the six games.
The Americans are tops in the tournament in penalty killing prowess, having successfully snuffed 23 of the 25 shorthanded situations it has faced in the tournament. Team USA’s power play unit is tied for the tournament lead with a dozen extra-man tallies. The Americans’ power-play (12-for-39) is clicking at a rate of 30.8 pct., the third best rate in the tournament.
Sweden’s power play (11-for-30) is tops in the tournament in terms of efficiency with a 36.7% rate of success. The Swedes are tied for fifth in penalty-killing with a 78.3% kill rate. They’ve killed off 18 of 23 opposition power plays.
Three of the Caps’ 2012 draftees will be playing in Saturday’s gold medal game. Team USA forward Riley Barber has totaled three goals and three assists for six points in the six games. Barber has notched 20 shots on goal, four PIM and a plus-1 rating. He scored one of his goals on the power play. Barber was Washington’s sixth-round (167th overall) pick in the 2012 NHL Draft.
Filip Forsberg was the Capitals’ first-round (11th overall) choice in last summer’s draft. Forsberg is Team Sweden’s captain. He has three goals and two assists in five games along with 28 shots on goal and a plus-1 rating. He has one game-winning goal and one power-play strike.
Sweden also features defenseman Christian Djoos, Washington’s seventh-round (195th overall) choice in the 2012 NHL Draft. Djoos has played in five games, picking up three assists and 10 shots on net while posting an even rating.
You can view the gold medal game on both The NHL Network and nhl.com. The bronze medal contest will be shown on The NHL Network. Both games will be re-broadcast later in the day on The NHL Network. The taped edition of the bronze medal game airs at 5:30 p.m. and the recorded version of the gold medal game will be shown at 8 p.m.
