Americans Beats Canada 6-5 For Gold In World Juniors

The American World Junior hockey team beat Team Canada 6-5 in overtime to win gold for 2nd time ever. Coach Dean Blais said that the way his squad won was by playing the game the Canadian way - in your face, with a total effort in both ends of the rink.

I love this quote from Dean Blais, Team USA head coach:

"We played Canadian hockey. We played gritty, we blocked shots, we backchecked hard, we had a tryout camp. You learn from the best. It's not an accident (Canada) won five straight gold medals. It's not an accident (Canada) put guys in the National Hockey League. I wanted gritty players, I wanted guys that would block shots and work at both ends of the rink. If we didn't have success I could live with myself. I didn't want a bunch of Fancy Dans that wouldn't play both ends, that were cocky and arrogant. I didn't have that team."

The Americans won on a goal by defenseman John Carlson beating Team Canada netminder Martin Jones 4:21 into the extra period. That was the Washington Capitals first-rounder's second goal of the game. Team USA was leading 5-3 in the waning minutes of the 3rd period, but Canada came back again, just like they did in the last meeting of the teams, but OT ended with a different result this time.

Kudos to Team USA for an excellent tournament and their first gold medal since 2004 (when they beat Team Canada). As always, there's next year to look forward to, but now all eyes turn to the upcoming Olympics.