Canada takes on Russia in the final of the world junior hockey championships taking place in Buffalo New York, United States. The Canadians suffered a shootout loss to Sweden which forced Team Canada to play a quarterfinal game against the Swiss team. Perhaps that extra game gave the Canadians a chance to fine tune their game and prepare for the Americans.
The semi-final game against the Americans saw a delirious crowd at HSBC arena that was mostly made of Canadians. Even though the Americans were the home team they were booed when they hit the ice by the Canadian fans. The 2010 final saw the Americans beat Canada on their home ice in overtime to win their 2nd ever world junior championship. The Canadians got redemption and completely ran over the Americans with a final score of 4-1 but the Canadians dominated the game. If it wasn't for Jack Campbell the score could have easily been 8-1 for Canada. The Canadian goaltender Mark Visentin was the player of the game as his puck handling skills helped the Canadians counter attack which on the first goal of the game Visetin was the player that kick started the first goal.
In the other semi-final game Team Russia fell behind to team Sweden 3-2 with 2 minutes left to play. With 1 minute left in the game the Russians tied it to send the game to overtime and with no result there, the game went to a shootout. In the shootout Golubev was the only goal scorer as the Russians upset a strong team Sweden that was well rested and the Swedish players looked absolutely heart broken on the ice while the Russians celebrated their 2nd come from behind victory in as many days. The Swedish goaltender was upset after the game about the referees yelling icing on a play where the whistle never blew and this caused the Swedish defence to let the Russians score without any challenge. This controversial goal means Sweden will play the Americans for the bronze medal while Team Canada players in their 10th gold medal game in a row and looks to recapture the gold they lost last year to the Americans. At least they have the satisfaction of dumping the favourites from the tournament.
Overall both the Russians and Canadians had to player 2 games in 2 days and perhaps that might have been the difference as the lack of rest meant both teams had to play not only desperate but they were both absolutely focused on winning.
