Midnight Blues
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U.S. golden in Ufa!
First American title since 2010, Sweden dethroned
Published 05.01.2013 15:15 | Author Lucas Aykroyd
On the strength of two Rocco Grimaldi goals, the United States became World Junior champions by defeating Sweden 3-1 at Ufa Arena on Saturday.
Grimaldi, who had been held goalless till the final, picked the perfect time to break out with his pair in the second period.
Filip Sandberg scored for Sweden, whose reign as World Champion has ended after one year.
Just as in the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championship final, American goalie John Gibson – the tournament MVP, Best Goaltender, and all-star goalie – outduelled his Swedish counterpart Niklas Lundström. Shots on goal favoured the U.S. 34-27.
It was a smart, controlled, tactical game in front of 6,001 spectators -- a worthy conclusion to an exciting tournament.
It is just the third World Junior title for the U.S. of all time. The Americans previously defeated Canada in the final in Helsinki (2004) and Saskatoon (2010).
For the Americans, this was a huge contrast from last year’s tournament in Calgary, where they had to play in the Relegation Round and settled for seventh place.
IIHF Hall of Famer Phil Housley won the tournament in his first stint as the head coach of the American U20 team.
Even though Swedish coach Roger Rönnberg was unable to finish his career behind the U20 national team's bench on a winning note, the Swedish program is faring well with medals at five out of the last six World Juniors.
The Swedes surprised many observers with their overachieving performance in Ufa despite missing key players like Zibanejad and defencemen Oscar Klefbom, Jonas Brodin, Hampus Lindholm, and Jesper Pettersson.
Before the game, Tre Kronor players posed with copies of the Swedish newspaper Expressen, which had the headline, “No More Miracles For You!” (It was an allusion to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” where Team USA beat the mighty Soviets at the Lake Placid Olympics.) But really, there was nothing "miraculous" about the way the talented Americans marched to victory at this tournament.
In a scoreless first period, the Swedes ran into penalty trouble but managed to survive back-to-back American power plays. Later, they failed to capitalize with two man advantages of their own. The best U.S. chance came off the rush, as Grimaldi hit the post and sent the puck skittering along the goal line near the 12:30 mark.
Sweden opened the scoring on the power play at 1:08 of the second period. U.S. defenceman Seth Jones bobbled the puck in his skates in front of his own net and it bounced to Filip Sandberg, who whipped it high over Gibson’s glove.
Grimaldi made it 1-1 at 7:42, coming off the goal line and firing a bad-angle shot that surprised a kneeling Lundström, squeaking between his body and the right post.
The Americans went up 2-1 less than three minutes later, as Jacob Trouba’s right point shot was tipped home by Grimaldi, standing in the slot.
With under five minutes left in the middle frame, Gibson denied Swedish captain Filip Forsberg from the slot after a Shayne Gostisbehere turnover deep in the U.S. zone.
Early in the third period, Gibson foiled Victor Arvidsson's dangerous wraparound attempt with his right pad. Grimaldi jeopardized his hero status with a tripping penalty at 6:07, but his teammates were able to kill off the minor.
The Swedes upped their pressure in the late stages of the third. Sandberg came close with a shot that bounced up off Gibson and over the crossbar as he bumped into the netminder with 1:50 left.
Sweden called its timeout at this point, and pulled the goalie 10 seconds later. But there was to be no equalizer. Trocheck added the empty-netter on a breakaway with 16 seconds to play.
This was a somewhat surprising gold matchup, as many had predicted that Canada and Russia would be the finalists. (Instead, the traditional hockey superpowers met for bronze, with Russia winning 6-5 in overtime.) The Americans lost 2-1 to both those teams in round-robin action.
It was the first time the Americans have ever faced an opponent other than Canada in a gold medal game (1997, 2004, 2010).
The United States will aim to defend its title at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship in Malmö, Sweden.
Gibson named MVP
Four Americans to All-Star Team
Published 05.01.2013 15:26 | Author Andrew Podnieks
U.S. goalie John Gibson received the triple honour of being named tournament MVP, Directorate Best Goalie, and goalie for the media all-star team.
Gibson becomes the first goalie since Steve Mason (CAN) in 2008 to be named MVP.
Other players named to the Directorate include Jacob Trouba (USA) as Best Defenceman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (CAN) as Best Forward.
The media all-star team consists of Gibson in goal as well as defencemen Trouba and Jake McCabe (USA). The forwards are Nugent-Hopkins, Filip Forsberg (SWE), and John Gaudreau (USA).
Attendance for the U20 is expected to be about 112,000 making it the third most attended U20 in Europe. Helsinki/Hämeenlinna in 1998 has the European record with 139,680 (for 34 games, as opposed to Ufa, which hosted 31 games), and Helsinki/Hämeenlinna again in 2004 (31 games).
Next year’s U20 will take place in Malmö, Sweden with a new format. All eight teams will play in the quarter-finals; the 5th-place game will be eliminated; and, the bottom two teams in each group will play a best-of-three to determine which country gets demoted.
Latvia is the only country to be demoted this year while Norway moves up in 2014 from Division I.
Congrats boys!!!!
First American title since 2010, Sweden dethroned
Published 05.01.2013 15:15 | Author Lucas Aykroyd
On the strength of two Rocco Grimaldi goals, the United States became World Junior champions by defeating Sweden 3-1 at Ufa Arena on Saturday.
Grimaldi, who had been held goalless till the final, picked the perfect time to break out with his pair in the second period.
Filip Sandberg scored for Sweden, whose reign as World Champion has ended after one year.
Just as in the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championship final, American goalie John Gibson – the tournament MVP, Best Goaltender, and all-star goalie – outduelled his Swedish counterpart Niklas Lundström. Shots on goal favoured the U.S. 34-27.
It was a smart, controlled, tactical game in front of 6,001 spectators -- a worthy conclusion to an exciting tournament.
It is just the third World Junior title for the U.S. of all time. The Americans previously defeated Canada in the final in Helsinki (2004) and Saskatoon (2010).
For the Americans, this was a huge contrast from last year’s tournament in Calgary, where they had to play in the Relegation Round and settled for seventh place.
IIHF Hall of Famer Phil Housley won the tournament in his first stint as the head coach of the American U20 team.
Even though Swedish coach Roger Rönnberg was unable to finish his career behind the U20 national team's bench on a winning note, the Swedish program is faring well with medals at five out of the last six World Juniors.
The Swedes surprised many observers with their overachieving performance in Ufa despite missing key players like Zibanejad and defencemen Oscar Klefbom, Jonas Brodin, Hampus Lindholm, and Jesper Pettersson.
Before the game, Tre Kronor players posed with copies of the Swedish newspaper Expressen, which had the headline, “No More Miracles For You!” (It was an allusion to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” where Team USA beat the mighty Soviets at the Lake Placid Olympics.) But really, there was nothing "miraculous" about the way the talented Americans marched to victory at this tournament.
In a scoreless first period, the Swedes ran into penalty trouble but managed to survive back-to-back American power plays. Later, they failed to capitalize with two man advantages of their own. The best U.S. chance came off the rush, as Grimaldi hit the post and sent the puck skittering along the goal line near the 12:30 mark.
Sweden opened the scoring on the power play at 1:08 of the second period. U.S. defenceman Seth Jones bobbled the puck in his skates in front of his own net and it bounced to Filip Sandberg, who whipped it high over Gibson’s glove.
Grimaldi made it 1-1 at 7:42, coming off the goal line and firing a bad-angle shot that surprised a kneeling Lundström, squeaking between his body and the right post.
The Americans went up 2-1 less than three minutes later, as Jacob Trouba’s right point shot was tipped home by Grimaldi, standing in the slot.
With under five minutes left in the middle frame, Gibson denied Swedish captain Filip Forsberg from the slot after a Shayne Gostisbehere turnover deep in the U.S. zone.
Early in the third period, Gibson foiled Victor Arvidsson's dangerous wraparound attempt with his right pad. Grimaldi jeopardized his hero status with a tripping penalty at 6:07, but his teammates were able to kill off the minor.
The Swedes upped their pressure in the late stages of the third. Sandberg came close with a shot that bounced up off Gibson and over the crossbar as he bumped into the netminder with 1:50 left.
Sweden called its timeout at this point, and pulled the goalie 10 seconds later. But there was to be no equalizer. Trocheck added the empty-netter on a breakaway with 16 seconds to play.
This was a somewhat surprising gold matchup, as many had predicted that Canada and Russia would be the finalists. (Instead, the traditional hockey superpowers met for bronze, with Russia winning 6-5 in overtime.) The Americans lost 2-1 to both those teams in round-robin action.
It was the first time the Americans have ever faced an opponent other than Canada in a gold medal game (1997, 2004, 2010).
The United States will aim to defend its title at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship in Malmö, Sweden.
Gibson named MVP
Four Americans to All-Star Team
Published 05.01.2013 15:26 | Author Andrew Podnieks
U.S. goalie John Gibson received the triple honour of being named tournament MVP, Directorate Best Goalie, and goalie for the media all-star team.
Gibson becomes the first goalie since Steve Mason (CAN) in 2008 to be named MVP.
Other players named to the Directorate include Jacob Trouba (USA) as Best Defenceman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (CAN) as Best Forward.
The media all-star team consists of Gibson in goal as well as defencemen Trouba and Jake McCabe (USA). The forwards are Nugent-Hopkins, Filip Forsberg (SWE), and John Gaudreau (USA).
Attendance for the U20 is expected to be about 112,000 making it the third most attended U20 in Europe. Helsinki/Hämeenlinna in 1998 has the European record with 139,680 (for 34 games, as opposed to Ufa, which hosted 31 games), and Helsinki/Hämeenlinna again in 2004 (31 games).
Next year’s U20 will take place in Malmö, Sweden with a new format. All eight teams will play in the quarter-finals; the 5th-place game will be eliminated; and, the bottom two teams in each group will play a best-of-three to determine which country gets demoted.
Latvia is the only country to be demoted this year while Norway moves up in 2014 from Division I.
Congrats boys!!!!
Really winning the gold is cool too 
No problem. As Hangers stated, I hate losing, but there is a lot of talent on those final four teams. Some days just don't go your way and when that happens, nothing you can do but shake hands and say "good game".
guys!!!!
