World Juniors: USA And Finland To Battle For Gold – Sweden And Czechia Look For Bronze

After an exciting day of semifinal action, we have a couple of fantastic matchups in the world juniors medal round.

With Finland and USA coming away victorious in their respective games, they will go head-to-head for the gold medal while Sweden and Czechia will compete for the bronze.

The first matchup of the day saw bitter rivals Sweden and Finland face off for a trip to the final. The back-and-forth affair had everything you could want in a high-stakes game. There were lead changes, a called-back goal, overtime and drama throughout the game.

In overtime, a costly and questionable penalty call of Swedish defender Tom Willander led to a power play where Benjamin Rautiainen won the game with a beautiful no-look shot from the side of the net. The feisty Finns secured a medal with the win. Now, they just have to determine whether it’s gold or silver.

The USA and Czechia game was tight from start to finish. Neither team really stole the momentum for too long. Despite the Americans leading for most of the game, the Czech squad stayed dialled in throughout the game. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t enough as the defending champions are heading back to the gold medal game on the back of their strong goaltending and star offensive players.

Here are the previews for the final day of world juniors action.

Gold Medal Game: Finland vs. USA

After a dramatic win against their arch-rival, Finland is ready to take on the USA in a rematch of the round-robin battle, where the USA lost its only game of the tournament.

The Americans will look to prove their lone falter in this tournament, an overtime loss, was an unfortunate mistake on their way to a dominant gold medal performance. The Finns will look to prove they deserve that win and so much more.

The Finns haven’t been the most dominant team all tournament long, but the momentum they’ve built since their opening-game loss to Canada has continually helped push them through to the next opponent. They beat the Americans in overtime in the group stage and then pushed a previously undefeated Swedish squad to overtime before eventually getting the win. This Finnish squad is battle-tested, to say the least.

Finland didn’t score a lot to begin this tournament, but with nine goals in their last two games, they’ve found their scoring touch against some of their toughest competition. They’ll need to score against Team USA, and they’ll look to Jesse Kiiskinen and Konsta Helenius to keep generating offensive chances. Most importantly, though, the Finns will need netminder Petteri Rimpinen to continue to look like the best goalie at the world juniors. Rimpinen has been absolutely phenomenal, showcasing crisp, clean technique and explosive athleticism.

Related: World Juniors: Fear The Finns In The Gold Medal Game

The Americans accomplished their goal of getting back to the gold medal game, where they are aiming for a repeat win at the world juniors.

The U.S. squad is the deepest and most balanced of any team at the world juniors on paper. They have scoring up-and-down the lineup, a diversely talented blueline and two goalies who have both looked quite strong at this tournament at various times. Trey Augustine has found his form as the tournament continued, and he once again looks like the netminder that everyone chose to be the best in tournament.

Whether it’s the top line of Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and James Hagens or depth players like Danny Nelson or Oliver Moore, the Americans are lethal with the puck on their sticks. Although Zeev Buium hasn’t been the tournament’s top blueliner as many expected, Cole Hutson has stepped up and been a lethal force for the Americans.

Related: Ryan Leonard At The World Juniors: "It's Cool To Be Hated."

Leonard and Perreault were all over the place in the semifinal against Czechia, combining for the Americans' first goal and then adding the insurance goal late in the game to help secure their trip back to the gold medal game. The duo helped the U.S. win gold last year, and they plan on doing the same this year.

The final game of the World Junior Championship will be a fun one. This may not have been the matchup many expected when the tournament began, but there will be plenty of drama.

Bronze Medal Game: Sweden vs. Czechia

The Swedes once again suffered a heartbreaking loss in the playoff rounds of the World Junior Championship, and they are playing their final game for a bronze medal rather than a gold medal. After an undefeated run to this point, they’ll get a chance to take on the Czech team again after beating them for first place in the group stage.

The Swedes are a highly skilled unit that can attack in waves. They have a number of incredibly talented forwards, and their defense group is as good as anyone’s in the tournament. They’ve had some iffy goaltending, with Melker Thelin having a bit of an up-and-down performance throughout the tournament. They have had some very good performances from their skaters. Otto Stenberg has been getting better as the tournament goes on, and he was pushing the pace and creating offensively against Finland. Axel Sandin-Pellikka has been a driver of play from the back end, and he remains tied for the tournament lead in scoring.

Related: 'Cool Guy' Axel Sandin-Pellikka Leading Sweden From The Blueline — And Teasing His NHL Potential With Red Wings

Czechia gave the Americans all that they could handle, but ultimately, the Americans were too much to handle. They were in the game from start to finish and outshot the Americans, but Augustine was locked in for the USA.

That said, the performance from Czechia was impressive, and they showed they deserve to be in the final four of this tournament. They could be poised to take down the Swedes in the bronze medal game. They simply have more to prove, and their semifinal loss is less of a shock to their system.

Czechia plays hard, heavy hockey, and that’s part of what helped Finland beat Sweden. Czechia arguably does it better. This is the fourth-straight year that they will be in the medal round, and they’ve become one of the toughest outs at the WJC. Whether it’s their offensive stars, such as Eduard Sale and Jakub Stancl, or their netminder Michael Hrabal, they are gritty, and they never give up. That exact mindset is what is needed to secure the bronze medal.

One of the biggest question marks going into the bronze medal game is desire. Oftentimes, teams will see the bronze medal as a consolation prize, and they can let the sting of their semifinal defeat linger.

Will Sweden have the drive to go and win the bronze medal after heartbreak 24 hours prior? Can the Czech squad find the motivation to go out and win a medal for a third-straight year? The winner of this game will likely be whichever team can answer those questions positively.

Related: NHL Draft Notebook: Hagens, Eklund And Osmanis Thrive At World Juniors

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