Bronze Medal Game
5:30 PM ET: Russia (3-1-0-2, 2nd Group B) vs Finland (4-0-0-2, 2nd Group A)
Russia has the longest active medal streak at the World Junior Hockey Championships, with two straight medals. After a bronze and a silver, they will likely be disappointed to once again be fighting for bronze instead of gold. Their 5-0 loss to Canada saw Yaroslav Askarov struggle early on and the team couldn’t recover. Askarov did rebound from his slow start, and it will be interesting to see whether Igor Larionov goes back to him with bronze on the line. If Askarov doesn’t start, it will be the second straight medal game where he was replaced as the starter. Finland bounced back from a tough game against Canada and slow start against Sweden to win their quarterfinal. They will need to rebound from their late loss to the United States to get back on the podium. The game will be on TSN 1/3/4/5 and RDS in Canada, NHL Network in the US.
Gold Medal Game
9:30 PM ET: United States (5-0-0-1, 1st Group B) vs Canada (6-0-0-0, 1st Group A)
Canada has been dominant in this tournament, there’s no other way to describe their run. They have yet to allow an even strength goal. They have yet to even trail in a game. Of course that will mean very little if they cannot finish the job and win their last game. The last three times that Canada has faced the United States for the gold medal, they have had their hearts broken with a loss due to a late third period goal (2004), in overtime (2010), and in a shootout (2017). After suffering a loss to Russia in their first game of the tournament, the United States has been very good. They won five straight games to finish first in their group and then make it to the gold medal game. They were able to score a late goal after blowing their 3-1 lead to give us the matchup of two countries who have provided us with a lot of classic games in this tournament. The game will be on TSN 1/3/4/5 and RDS in Canada, NHL Network in the US.
All games shown on TSN will be streamed on TSN Live in Canada, but it requires a subscription.
