You can try to slow them down — at least for a little while — but there was simply no stopping Team USA’s offence at the 2024 World Junior Championship. And with gold on the line on Friday, Sweden learned that lesson the hard way. Not even its elite defence, backed by the tournament’s top-performing goaltender, could keep the Americans’ scoring attack at bay.
Team USA rode its powerful offence all the way to Friday’s final, the lone undefeated roster in Gothenburg keeping its winning record intact enroute to a 6-2 victory over Sweden and the title of World Junior champions.
Call it a dominant showing on the world stage. Call it an elite offensive effort, a sign of more USA golden expectations to come. For the players donning red, white, and blue, they called this one revenge.
For as much as talk of hockey rivalries (at this tournament and beyond) tends to centre around neighbouring nations of Canada and the United States, Friday’s final revealed a deepening feud that’s expected to grow in years to come. The game served up a rematch of the gold-medal contest at the 2022 U18 worlds in which netminder Hugo Havelid and Team Sweden stole gold with a 6-4 win despite being outshot 51-15. Many of the players in that final met again in Friday’s matchup, familiar faces hitting the ice with memories of their last meeting still fresh despite the passing of time.
The Americans spoke of avenging that loss ahead of Friday’s matchup, and they accomplished the mission, finally solving Havelid. Forward Gabe Perrault was the first to slip a puck past the undersized and undrafted Swedish goalie nearly 17 minutes into what was a tightly-contested, evenly-matched first period that saw both goaltenders stand tall.
Each side scored twice in the second period, with Team USA forward Isaac Howard scoring back-to-back markers to take the tournament scoring lead while Swedish standout Jonathan Lekkerimaki made it a one-goal game again with just five seconds left in the second. A momentum shift? Maybe so, had the Americans not come out roaring in the third with a quick goal to open the frame followed by two more late in the game to seal the victory. A late-game brawl, evidence of bad blood boiling over, suggests that while the U.S. took this one particular battle, this rivalry’s not fading anytime soon.
With another tournament now in the books, here’s a collection of our top takeaways from Friday’s gold-medal matchup between USA and Sweden.
Offence drives the victory, but U.S. defence locks it up
The story of Team USA this year has been its offence. The opening act of Friday’s final was its goaltending, Trey Augustine shutting down the Swedes in the first period to allow his team to hit its stride. But the unsung hero in this game might just be the defence. A core of highly-touted NHL prospects that, when faced with a one-goal lead in the third period, shut down Sweden’s attack altogether. Defenders Lane Hutson and Ryan Chesley dominated time on ice totals, the duo registering 27:20 and 25:16 of ice time, respectively, in the game.
Sweden’s search for history on home ice falls short
The storybook ending was right there: Team Sweden, host nation of this year’s tournament, leaning on its elite defence and all-star goaltending to make it all the way to the final on home ice in front of passionate fans decked out in Tres Kronor gear. The Swedes have stood atop the world juniors podium before, but just twice — and not since 2012, despite four trips to the final since then. Sweden made it to the final game the last time it hosted the tournament, too, falling to Finland in 2014 in Malmo. A win over the Americans on Friday would’ve been their first golden victory at home.
Top-ranked Boston College wins big with USA victory
Team USA won gold, but the real winner of this 2024 tournament might just be Boston College’s recruitment staff. Seven players on Team USA’s golden roster currently play Division-I hockey for the Eagles, including the high-scoring line of Gabe Perrault, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard. Their chemistry has been evident all tournament long, the trio combining for 25 points through seven games this tournament. No surprise, the 13-3-1 program is the top-ranked roster in the NCAA right now.
Same time next year?
Twenty years after winning their first-ever gold medal at the world junior championship, Team USA celebrated golden victory No. 6 Friday in Sweden. And while the historic connection adds to the lore of this year’s dominant victory and the journey to the top exactly two decades after first winning gold at the tournament, the real story is the future of this program.
Eleven members of this roster are eligible to return to the World Juniors next year to defend their title. The Americans have never won back-to-back World Junior gold medals.
Team Sweden, too, looks like it’s built for sustained success. Nine players on that roster will be eligible to return to the tournament next year.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
