Canada jumped out to a 4-0 first period lead and led 5-1 in the second but had to defend a one-goal lead late in the game as the Swedes never went away. Canada held on for a 5-4 win and a berth in the gold medal game at the 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship.
Windsor Spitfires Liam Greentree scores on what appeared to be an impossible angle for Canada 2:18 into the first period to make it 1-0 with the assists on the goal going to Spencer Gill and Ollie Josephson.
Gavin McKenna makes it 2-0 for Canada from Porter Martone and Matthew Schaefer at 7:07 of the first frame. McKenna now owns the all-time Team Canada points record with 16 he beat four players before sending it home, marking one of his nicest plays of the tournament. He passed Tyson Jost & Macklin Celebrini for the most points scored by a Canadian skater in a single tournament with 16 points. (six goals, 10 assists).
Tij Iginla makes it 3-0 from a nice backhand pass from Matthew Schafer and Ryder Ritchie at 18:25 of the first period thats 3 goals on 4 shots.
Ryder Ritchie made it 4-0 when he finished a Canadian tic-tac-toe play, with Tij Iginla and Frankie Marelli helping set up the goal.
Shots in the first period were 12-6 for Canada
Sweden gets on the board at 3:53 of the second period when Viggo Nordlund (Skeleftea AIK J20) sniped one past Carter George. The assist on the goal went to Djurgardens forward Linus Eriksson. Nordlund isn’t eligible for the draft until 2025.
Ottawa 67’s D Man Henry Mews makes it 5-1 at 7:07 of the second period with the assists going to Caleb Desnoyers and Porter Martone. Although McKenna didn’t get a point he was very instrumental in setting up the goal.
Sweden scores again to make it 5-2 when Viggo Nordlund gets his second goal of the game with the assist going to Central Scoutings 13th ranked European Skater Alfons Freij and Linus Eriksson.
Shots on goal in the second period were 16-7 for Sweden
Victor Eklund makes it a 5-3 game when he scores for Sweden and cuts the Canadians lead to 2 at 7:58 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to Viggo Nordlund and J20 Vaxjo Laker defenceman Leo Sahlin Wallenius.
Hugo Orsten makes it a 5-4 game for Sweden at 14:19 of the third period with the assists going to Viggo Gustafsson and Adam Hesselvall. I have never heard of the name Viggo before until today. And I learnt there are 2 people with that name.
Then with 4 minutes left in the game the TSN channel went to all fuzz. Every other channel worked but this game was just fuzz. At least the volume was there but no picture. That lasted over a minute.
Sweden pulled the goalie with a minute left and came close, but no cigar.
Shots on goal in the third period were 13-7 for the Swedes. With Team Sweden outshooting Canada 35 to 26 in the game.
Carter George made 31 saves on the 35 shots that he faced for Canada for the win. For Team Sweden 2007 born goalie Love Harenstam who played for Lulea of the J20 Swedish League last season made 21 saves on the 26 shots that he faced.
Canada plays in the United States in the gold medal game Sunday. Sweden will play Slovakia for the bronze.
With two assists in Canada’s Semi-Final victory over Sweden the Mississauga Steelheads forward passes Connor Bedard for Canada’s career scoring record at the #U18MensWorlds with 22 points! All Time Points List Here
RECORD ALERT!- James Hagens set new all-time record for points on a single #U18MensWorlds tournament. He broke 13 years old record held by Nikita Kucherov. And he still has one more game left.
