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4 B.C. boys grab World Junior gold while 2 Canucks prospects earn medals |
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British Columbia was well represented as Team Canada wrapped up the 2022 World Junior Championship with a thrilling 3-2 overtime win over Finland to capture the gold medal on Saturday.
Port Moody's Kent Johnson scored the golden goal at 3:20 of overtime, corralling his own rebound and blasting it high over Finnish netminder Juha Jatkola to ignite the celebration.
Johnson also scored a spectacular Michigan goal earlier in the tournament, and finished with three goals and six assists for nine points in seven games.
Canada's golden goaltender was Dylan Garand of Victoria, who finished out his major junior career with the Kamloops Blazers last season. Playing six games for the Canadian team that ran the table, the New York Rangers draft pick finished with a .925 save percentage and 1.98 goals-against average. But he missed out on being named top goaltender of the tournament. That honour that went to bronze medalist Jesper Wallstedt, the Minnesota Wild first-rounder who finished at .9398 and 1.62 in five games for Sweden.
Another Kamloops Blazer, Logan Stankoven, also had an outstanding tournament — centering Canada's consistent second line with Johnson and Tyson Foerster. A Kamloops native, the second-round pick of the Dallas Stars finished with four goals and 10 points, tying him for fourth overall in the tournament. And Stankoven doesn't turn 20 till February. He's set to return as Blazers captain this fall, and will be eligible for World Juniors again in Halifax and Moncton in December.
Finally, there's Connor Bedard. The 17-year-old from North Vancouver is theoretically eligible for the next three World Junior tournaments, but will likely be an NHL staple long before that eligibility expires.
With lots of power-play time, Bedard got plenty of opportunity in Edmonton, averaging 17:16 of ice time a game. He finished with four goals and four assists for eight points, and was absolutely buzzing in overtime on Saturday, putting pressure on the Finns during the thrilling end-to-end action and looking to help out as Mason McTavish made the spectacular goal-line stop that set the stage for the Canadians' winning goal.
I find it sort of...uncomfortably impressive?....that Hockey Canada has been able to stay on task and win gold this summer at both the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and World Juniors, even in the midst of the very public reckoning that they're going through. Credit to the players, for sure — it's not their fault that they're caught in this situation. But there are also a lot of long-time Hockey Canada staffers behind the scenes that keep the wheels turning for these tournaments. They've got to be feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders, even as they try to focus on the task at hand.
There's one more gold still up for grabs in this year's tournament cycle. Canada's women will be looking to defend their world title from 2021 and their 2022 Olympic gold at the women's world championship in Denmark. It starts this Thursday and runs through September 4.
And Hockey Canada still has a lot of work ahead, dealing with their past actions and showing that they're making a real commitment to change going forward. I think that will be the minimum that's required to restore the trust of both sponsors and fans.
As for the Canucks' World Junior prospects, Finland's Joni Jurmo goes home with a silver medal and Sweden's Jonathan Lekkerimaki gets a bronze.
At a glance, Jurmo's stat line doesn't say much — one assist and an even plus/minus. But he dressed for all seven games — which is a solid accomplishment for a player who had not been included on the Finnish roster for the original tournament last December. Jurmo settled in well on a defense pairing with Kasper Puutio, who was named best defenseman in the tournament by the IIHF Directorate. And Jurmo ended up averaging a solid 14:36 of ice time per game, which spiked to 16:34 in the gold-medal game. Not surprisingly, didn't see any ice time in 3-on-3 overtime, but he did log 4:58 in the third period as the Finns fought back from a 2-0 deficit to push the game to the fourth period.
Jurmo's strong showing at this tournament comes on the heels of a solid performance at the Canucks' development camp in July. He's headed back to Jukurit for another season in Finland's Liiga this fall, but with his good size and strong skating, I think he's back in the mix as a legitimate prospect for Vancouver.
As for Jonathan Lekkerimaki, his next stop will be Djurgardens in Stockholm, where he split time between the U20 squad and the big club last season. Unfortunately, the big club was relegated, so Lekkerimaki and his World Juniors teammates Liam Ohgren and No. 3 goalie Carl Lindbom will be toiling in the second-tier Allsvenskan this fall.
After losing 1-0 to Finland in the semifinal, the Swedes rallied for bronze with a 3-1 win over Czechia on Saturday — sending out long-time U20 coach Tomas Monten on a positive note.
Barely 18 years old, I'm not writing off Lekkerimaki after this tournament by any stretch. In general, Sweden's offense had a hard time getting much going — their leading scorer was defenseman Emil Andrae, with eight points. Ohgren had just one assist while averaging 11:54 of ice time. Lekkerimaki finished with no goals and three assists, seeing an average of 10:50 per game.
The bronze-medal game was a tightly contested affair, with the Czechs outshooting the Swedes 28-23 and no more than a one-goal margin until Linus Sjodin potted the insurance goal with 3:26 left in regulation time.
Sweden also had to kill two third-period penalties, both to Andrae, as they worked to preserve their one-goal lead. So it's no wonder they were in full-scale defense mode. Lekkerimaki didn't get a shift in the final frame, after playing 4:11 in the first period and 2:00 in the second.
In the end, Lekkerimaki did not compare well to the player who was drafted two spots after him in Montreal last month. Finland's Joakim Kemell, who's just three months older, finished second in tournament scoring with 12 points and was named one of the tournament's three top forwards in media MVP voting, along with Mason McTavish and Czechia's Jan Mysak.
But it's only one tournament — and a weird one at that. For me Lekkerimaki just slides into the 'wait and see' category for the next little while.
With this tournament in the books, the countdown is now on till YoungStars in Penticton, which starts on Sept. 16. Then, training camp in Whistler opens one week later.
As we get closer to Labour Day weekend, I'm sure we'll be hearing lots more about possible late-summer signings, PTO options, Bo Horvat's potential contract extension — and J.T. Miller, of course.
Canucks players are starting to arrive in Vancouver. Andrey Kuzmenko has been spotted at a Vancouver Whitecaps game, while Thatcher Demko and Brock Boeser hit the links last week.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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