Team USA won gold at this year’s World Youth Hockey Tournament. They played their best hockey in their last two games of the tournament and they were also the biggest games. Team USA won the gold medal for competitiveness and poise. Defender Jacob Trouba earned the honor of being the tournament’s most outstanding defender and his future looks bright as he looks forward to joining the Winnipeg Jets roster. His fellow defender and team captain Jake McCabe also had a great tournament offensively and defensively, and the Buffalo Sabers draft pick will have a good chance of making that team next fall if Sabers management finds him what. mature enough to take another step towards the final. Big leagues. John Gadreau was the highest-scoring forward on Team USA, and surprisingly scored more than his high-caliber teammates Alex Galchenyuk and Tyler Biggs. This is only the third gold medal in Team USA history, and including this year, they won it in 2010 and 2004.
The Sweden team made a great effort to win their second consecutive gold medal and the third in the team’s history. They fell short against Team USA but still won the silver medal. They may only have two gold medals, but they sure have a great silver collection with 8 silver medals in their history, most of them from the mid-1990s. Forward Filip Forsberg is named the best player on the team. of Sweden due to his combination of consistent defensive play, leadership and offensive ability. It would have been a great story if Sweden won their second consecutive gold medal, but in the gold medal showdown, the USA team just wanted the gold much more and so the Sweden team lost 3- 1 that game. Look to Sweden for revenge as the host country at the 2014 World Youth Tournament in Malmo, Sweden.
The Russia team is the most prolific team in world youth hockey. Since their founding in 1993, they have won medals in 17 of the last 20 tournaments, including a bronze in this year’s tournament. Nail Yakupov, who was the first overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft, was also named team captain for Russia. He acquired 8 points from 7 games and also made headlines when he called the Canadian team’s style of play “dirty.” He and Mikhail Grigorenko were top picks in the 2012 NHL entry draft and were also the best players on the team. They lost to Team Sweden 3-2 in the semi-finals, but won a wild win against Team Canada 6-5 in overtime in their final game to claim the bronze medal.
The highest scoring player in the tournament was Team Canada’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with 15 points from just 6 games despite his team not winning a medal. John Gibson of Team USA was named the tournament’s best goalkeeper with an incredible save percentage of 955 and 1.36 goals against average. He was the Anaheim Ducks ‘second-round pick in the 2011 NHL entry draft and is expected to impress at the Ducks’ training camp in the fall of 2013. Finland had 3 high-scoring forwards: Joel Armia, Markus Granlund and Teuvo Teravainen, placed second and third. and fourth place in tournament score. The Finnish team has not won a medal since 2006 and they have not won gold since 1998. They are owed a medal, but not if they continue to lose the quarter-finals.