Yesterday the semifinals of the IIHF World Junior Championships were played and here are the results:
Sweden 1 – 4 Russia
Sweden beat Russia with 3-2 in the group stage and got the top spot in group B. In the playoffs Russia came out as the stronger team and got a 2-0 lead in the second period after a goalless first period. Early in the third period they were up with 3-0 while Sweden managed to reduce the lead to 3-1 with 9 minutes to go. The minute later however, a hypereffective and hungry Russia managed to score again and wrote the end result to 4-1.
Canada 5 – 1 Slovakia
The home team Canada made no mistake in the semifinal against Slovakia. Nicolas Petan scored a hat-trick with one goal in each period, two of them in power play. After the first period the score was 1-0 to team Canada and 3-1 after the second, Slovakia reducing the lead with 3 seconds to go of the middle period, keeping the game alive. Team Canada didn’t keep the pressure of Slovakian goalkeeper Godla, firing a total of 44 shots compared to Slovakia’s 15.
Battle for the medals
In the bronze game tonight Slovakia will face Sweden. Russia and Canada will battle for the gold. Last time they met in a final was in 2011 when Russia won the gold medal. In the last two tournaments Canada haven’t got a medal. Now they are guaranteed to get one, we will only have to wait and see what valor it will be.
