Before the Canada vs. USA World Junior Hockey Championship gold medal game and the Edmonton Oilers vs Phoenix Coyotes NHL games were even started I was already thinking about how this article would look. It had the premise of Canada wins gold for a 6th straight year and the Oilers sucked as usual.

Then when the games started I had to start reconsidering what I was thinking. After the first period with the game tied at 2 it was still going to be Canada winning gold but I was very impressed by the USA team speed and determination and was going to have to add that in somewhere. Over in the other game the Oilers were doing what I expected at this time; losing 1-0.

1 minute into the second period the USA scored to go up 3-2. Just less than 3 minutes later Canada tied it up for the second time. It was at this point that the USA won the gold medal in my opinion. They pulled their starting goalie, Mike Lee, and replaced him with Jack Campbell. That change seemed to buoy the American team and until the last 3 minutes of the third period, Campbell stoned the Canadians at every chance they had. On the other side, Canadian starter Jake Allen was equally as shaky as Lee and finally was replaced after the 5th USA goal at 6:23 of the third period by Martin Jones. With under 14 minutes to go in a gold medal game was too late to be making that change. Canadian Coach Willie Desjardins threw a cold Jones to the wolves so to speak and I think Jones was at least partially at fault on the OT winner by the USA’s John Carlson. Goalies in any sport are coached with the understanding that nothing beats you short side. You have to at least have that covered. The winning goal went short side. I give a hat tip to USA coach Dean Blais for making the change he did when he did. Congratulations to team USA for a great tournament. We look forward to beating you next year when the tournament is on your home soil.

Edmonton Oiler’s prospect Jordan Eberle pulled some more heroics out of his bag to score 2 late goals and send the game to overtime. Many individuals are considering Eberle to be the next saviour of the Oilers and expect him to be able to pull the team out of the funk that they have been in for the last 3 years. Unfortunately the same people were also heralding Robbie Schremp the same way. People have to sit back and remember that junior hockey and the NHL are 2 different levels of the game. Jonathan Willis over at Oilersnation did a good post comparing Eberle to various other Oiler draft picks that is good.

So the Canadian lost and it was back to the Oilers and Coyotes game. The Copper and Blue must have been inspired by Jordan Eberle because they scored 2 goals in 2 minutes half way through the second to tie their game at 2. Unfortunately, as has been the case most of the year so far, the gracious hosts decided to fall asleep at the wheel and give the Coyotes 2 more goals before the second period ended and trailed by those 2 goals to end the period. The Oilers again came to life just before the mid point of the third period and scored 2 goals in 49 seconds to tie the game back up. Just like the junior game, unacceptable or questionable goaltending at either end was to at least partially to blame for a couple of goals. Shane Doan then scored the OT winner to again send the Oilers down to defeat. Yes, this is the same Shane Doan who is the captain of the Coyotes and who, along with Jarome Iginla, Peter Sykora, and a host of others still playing in the NHL was passed over in the 1995 NHL enrty draft by the Oilers for Steve Kelly who ended up only ever playing 27 games with the Oilers and 147 NHL games total.

So the night ended up with both the teams I was cheering for losing in overtime. I am torn though about which result was the hardest to deal with. Yes it was sad that the Canadian juniors lost but after 5 straight wins, the law of averages had to catch up to them and for international junior hockey it was probably the best result…at least I will keep telling myself that until I feel better about the loss. I think what was worse though was the Oilers got a point in their loss. Unless they turn it around right freakin now, that was a useless point in the standings and could cost them a higher draft pick. That is not to say that a higher draft pick will be better necessarily (see the Steve Kelly note above), but at least the higher picks are usually better in the NHL…and I do mean usually not definitely.

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Team Canada

The game started pretty much as predicted with Canada getting an early goal on the power play off the stick of Edmonton Oilers prospect Jordan Eberle. After that, the rest of the first period was scoreless although the Canadians dominated much of the play but were unable to solve Swiss goalie Benjamin Conz. Conz was one of the main reasons the Swiss beat Russia yesterday as he had 50 saves on 52 shots. Both teams had powerplays throughout the remainder of the first.

Canada came out flat to start the second period and gave the Swiss a couple of early power plays chances to even the score but the Canadians ended up with a great short handed goal by Marco Scandella. This was followed less than 2 minutes later with a great play by Taylor Hall to make it 3-0. Canada continued to play lazy and soon after took their third penalty of the period. The Swiss finally capitalized to make it 3-1. The Canadians still didn’t learn and took their 4th penalty of the period but they were able to kill this penalty off and were able to close out the period with a 3-1 lead.

Canada came out strong to start the third period and pretty much salted the game away just less than 3 minutes into the period as Brayden Schenn scored an even strength goal to lift Canada to a 4-1 lead. A very tired Swiss team started taking penalties during the middle part of the period but the Canadians were unable to score but did continue to take time off the clock. Finally with under 4 minutes to go the Canadians finally put the game to bed with goals by Stefan Della-Rovere and Taylor Hall and 6-1 was the final score.

The game did end on a nasty note though as Swiss forward Jeffrey Fuglister took Canadian defender Travis Hamonic into the boards from behind deep in the Canadian zone. Hamonic left the ice holding his left arm and his condition was unknown at this time. Fuglister received a 5 minute major penalty and a game misconduct for the hit and could be suspended for the bronze medal game on Tuesday. The final shots in the game favored Canada 44-21.

Canada plays in the gold medal game for the 9th straight year on Tuesday against the winner of the USA vs. Sweden to be played later tonight. The Swiss will play the bronze medal game earlier on Tuesday against the loser of the same game. Canada will need to play better than they have the last 2 games though if they are to make it 6 gold medals in a row. Both Sweden and the USA will be a tough opponent and with Canada already beating the USA they could be the tougher of the 2 opponents with the USA having lots to prove and avenge.

UPDATE: Canadian defenceman Travis Hamonic will indeed miss the finals with a suspected separated shoulder.