Team USA defeated Team Sweden 3-1 to win the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia on Saturday. Rocco Grimaldi, a red-shirt freshman at the University of North Dakota and Florida Panther's prospect who had paid a visit earlier in the tournament to head Coach Phil Housley's Chateau Bow Wow for selfish play, picked the right time to start contributing offensively as he scored twice including the game winner.
Epitomizing just how snake bit he was, in the first period, Grimaldi fired the puck on net on a 2-on-1 that went off both posts, but early in the second with USA down by one, he fired the puck on net from a bad angle along the goal line and it found a hole between the goalie and the post and squeaked across the line. Later in the period, he notched the eventual game winner when Jacob Trouba's shot from the point deflected off Grimaldi's stick in the slot and past the goalie.
In the third period it was all defense all the time as Sweden tried everything possible to generate some offensive pressure, but Team USA remained disciplined in their approach and thwarted each and every opportunity. You could count on one hand how many times Team USA allowed Sweden's attack to reach the hash marks let alone find it's way to John Gibson, who was stellar once again in net for the Americans. It truly was a defensive clinic as guys were blocking shot after shot and forcing offensive zone turnovers. Finally, with 30 seconds to go in regulation and the extra attacker on for Tre Kronor, one of those turnovers led to a breakaway for Vince Trocheck and likely the most significant empty net goal of his career sealing the victory for the red, white and blue.
John Gibson, defenseman and Team USA's captain, Jake McCabe, Jacob Trouba, who led all defensemen in scoring, and Johnny Gaudreau, who lead the tournament in goals scored, were all named to the All-Tournament Team with Gibson named Tournament MVP. In addition, Gibson and Trouba received Directorate Awards as the tournament's Best Goaltender and Best Defenseman.
Before the tournament, top prospect defenseman Seth Jones was asked about Team USA's chances in Ufa and he said he felt they were the best team and could win the gold medal, something very few predicted them to do against the stacked Canadians and the Russians fueled by their home crowd, not to mention Sweden as defending champions. Prior to the gold medal game he explained that he wasn't trying to be cocky, but that he was just showing confidence in his teammates because he thought they had all the tools necessary to come home with a championship and, fortunately, they had backed him up with their play on the ice saving him from "looking like an idiot."
Most analysts point to line juggling after two, 2-1 losses to Russia and Canada as the so-called turning point for the Americans as they scored 20 goals in their next three games including a 5-1 thumping against Canada in the semifinal, but for me it was that they didn't lose confidence in themselves after those defeats. Both were well played and very close, just a bounce or two from a win, and Housley was adamant that they just needed to find ways to improve every game and the team that improved the most throughout the course of the tournament would come out on top and that's exactly what happened as Team USA got better and better with each game.
This truly was a team effort and with seven players eligible to return next year, expectations will be high for Team USA to repeat in Malmo, Sweden.
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I want to thank everyone who followed my coverage in Ufa, especially the 13,000 of you who started following me on Twitter during these past 10 days. This team truly was a pleasure to work with and made my job so easy. One of my favorite moments - besides seeing them win, of course - was hearing the from Swedish media before the medal round even started how nice, polite and professional the Team USA players were. As journalists, we sometimes forget just how good we have it and between the players and the excellent job done by Matt Trevor, USA Hockey's PR representative, I can honestly say Team USA left quite an impression both on and off the ice in Ufa.
I also want to thank all the IIHF volunteers, staff and the people of Ufa for their help and hospitality. I had a fantastic time in Ufa despite the cold temps, seemingly constant snow and blustery winds. I think the best example of that was during the gold medal ceremony as Ufa Arena remained full with everyone on their feet and clapping throughout as Sweden and USA received their awards. Consider me impressed.
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In other news, the lockout is over!!! As I sat in the Moscow airport awaiting my flight to Munich, I hit the refresh button on my twitter an absurd number of times as the NHL and NHLPA kept going in the bargaining session that seemed like it would never end. I knew that they wouldn't meet for that long, that late/early just to announce that they'd reconvene tomorrow. I literally just missed the news as I boarded my flight at 4:30am EST, but couldn't have been happier to hear the good news upon my arrival in Munich three hours later. Makes this nine hour flight across the Atlantic a little more bearable even though the wifi is broken and I'm feeling serious twitter withdrawals as I want to know all the details, but none of that really matters as the NHL plans to start up again in the next 10 days. Woooo-to-the-freaking-hooo. If you're a fan of great hockey, it's been a tremendous 24 hours!
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Here's a link to my
photo album on facebook of my trip to Russia. I tweeted a lot of them, but here they are all in one place!
Julie
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