A week of high-end hockey games came to a close on Saturday night with what became the tradition of the playoff round, a one-goal game.
Adam Bokvist’s power play goal at 3:50 of the third period was the difference as Team Sweden beat Team Canada Black 2-1 on Saturday night to claim gold at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge at the Essar Center in front of what was easily the biggest crowd of the seven-day event.
After not liking his teams energy in the semifinal on Friday, Swedish Coach Ulf Lundberg said he was pleased with what he saw in Saturday’s title game.
“Before the game we talked about really going hard,” Lundberg said. “The energy was there (in the final). It was a very small difference between the teams. I’m very proud of this team.”
The Swedes carried the play in the early going, outshooting the Canadian team 17-10 in the opening period but trailed 1-0 on a goal by Eli Zummack.
Linus Nassen had the other Swedish goal, scoring midway through the second period, while goaltender Olof Lindbom made 27 saves.
Jacob Ingham made 33 saves for Team Canada Black.
“We left it all out on the ice and that’s what we’re most proud of,” said Team Canada Black Coach Paul Boutilier. “We’re proud of the kids.”
Sweden got to the gold medal game thanks to a shootout win over Team Canada White on Saturday while Team Canada Black advanced with a shootout win over Team Russia.
Team Russia would beat Team Canada White 6-1 on Saturday afternoon to claim the bronze medal.
Andrey Svechnikov had a goal and two assists for Team Russia while Aleksandr Khovanov added a pair of goals. Pavel Rotenberg had a goal and an assist. Egor Sokolov and Aleksei Drobin also scored for the Russians.
“It was a difficult game for us but to win 6-1 is a good win for us,” said Russian Assistant Coach Andrei Kapranov. “We’re very glad that the last game (of the tournament) was a win.”
Carson Focht had the lone goal for Team Canada White, scoring on the power play late in the second period. It was the only power play goal the Russians surrendered in the tournament.
“It was a quick turnaround and a tough loss last night,” said Team Canada White Coach Brent Kisio. “It wasn’t the start we wanted (to the game). We fell behind early on. We had our looks to tie it back up but we couldn’t find anything and it caught up to us.”
The tournament all-star team was announced following Saturday’s final and included Swedish netminder Olof Lindbom, defencemen Jett Woo of Team Canada White and Ty Smith of Team Canada Black and forwards Andrey Svechnikov of Russia, Joel Farabee of Team USA and Samuel Fagemo of Team Sweden.
Svechnikov led the tournament in goals with five and points with eight. Svechnikov and linemate Aleksandr Khavanov combined to score 10 or Russia’s 17 goals in the tournament.