Canada came into Tuesday night’s Gold Medal game the heavy favorites to win a second-consecutive World Juniors Championship. They’d gone undefeated in the six previous games, twice scoring in the double digits. Though USA Hockey had three shut outs in the tournament, they lost to Russia in the preliminary round, and had a close call against Finland in Monday night’s semifinal.
Once again, USA goaltender Spencer Knight was on the top of his game, making a perfect 34/34 saves. Canada didn’t make it easy on Knight, with a 34-21 shot share. Team USA was held to just six shots in the second period and one shot in the third, but Canada couldn’t break Knight.