Over the winter break there was no shortage of great hockey to be watched. The World Junior Championship was all over every sports network, concluding with Canada taking bronze, Russia with Silver, and Sweden cinching the gold; their first since 1981, totalling two in the history of the tournament. The IIHF World Junior U20 championship is a tournament comprised of the very best junior hockey players from Canada and around the globe. This year, the World Junior Championship was held in Alberta, Canada; it was played in both Edmonton and Calgary arenas.
This year produced some big new names to look out for in the future, and many memorable games. The goaltender for the Czech Republic, Petr Mrazek, was one of the biggest stories in the tournament. Mrazek had a 52 save game against the USA and ignited crowds with his over the top celebrations. The Czech team went on to play Russia in the quarter finals where Mrazek made a whopping 43 saves in the 2-1 loss. Max Friberg was another huge force in the tournament. Friberg was part of the gold winning Sweden team; he scored many important goals including an overtime winner against Russia and the goal that won the shootout against Finland in the semi-finals. The semi-final game and the final game that Sweden took part in were major games in the tournament as the team came in to Championship ranked third in the world. The big game for the Canadians came with their match up against Russia in the semi-finals. Canada looked like they were bound to lose at the start of the third period, but after coming back from a huge deficit they fell just short with a final score of 6-5 for Russia. Though the Canadian team dominated the round robin play of the tournament they were forced to the bronze medal match, where they won the game 4-0.
This year’s tournament sold 571,000 tickets and had a record breaking attendance of 440,000, beating the previous record of 359,000, during the 2009 tournament, in Ottawa. Although historically the tournament has many more fans and is much more profitable in North America, it will not be back until 2015 where it is set to be played in Ottawa. It will be in Canada for 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021. In the meantime it will be in across the Atlantic, close to home for many. Russia will host the 2013 world junior hockey championship and Sweden the year following. Unfortunately, Latvia and Denmark were relegated, dropping out of the tournament for 2013. Next year holds high hopes for Canada, however. For the past decade Canada had played in the tournament final, with five gold medals. With 14 medals in a row, the world juniors are always exciting for the many Canadian fans. Another year brings another chance to make it to the finals and bring home the gold.
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