The United States is on top of the hockey world following a 3-1 win over Sweden to win the Gold medal at the 2013 World Junior tournament. It is the second gold medal for the USA in three years as they won the 2010 tournament over Canada.
Leafs prospects Tyler Biggs and Garret Sparks won gold medals while Swedish prospect Tom Nilsson took home a silver medal. Biggs was on the ice for all three USA goals on the day. He finished the tournament with one point and a +6 rating. Nilsson ended his tournament with two points and a +2 rating playing on the top pairing for Sweden.
Following the win, Biggs took to Twitter to post his thoughts on the win: “Words can’t describe how I feel and to do it with this group of guys I couldn’t ask for anything better.” Give him a follow @Tyler_Biggs
It was a tough end to the tournament for Morgan Rielly and Team Canada as they fell 6-5 in overtime to Russia in the Bronze medal game. The loss ended Canada’s run of 14 straight years with a medal. The last time Canada didn’t take home a medal was in 1998.
Just like most Canada/Russia games, it was a back-and-forth affair but this time the 6-5 result like in years past didn’t go Canada’s way. It was the seventh time in history that a Canada/Russia game ended 6-5. The Canadians trailed 2-0 less than five minutes into the game. Canada never had the lead in the game and a goal mid-way through the third period by Brett Ritchie forced overtime.
Rielly started off the tournament strong but just like the rest of the team, he slowed down the last two games. Saturday, he was minus two with three shots on net. He finished the tournament with three points and a +2 rating.
You can watch a replay of the Canada/Russia game at 1pm or 7:30pm on TSN. A replay of the Gold medal game will be at 3:30pm on TSN or 10:30pm on TSN2
