George Richards, FHN Publisher
The gold medal game of the World Junior tournament featured two Florida Panthers prospects in net as Team USA’s Spencer Knight squared off against Canada’s Devon Levi.
While Knight was absolutely terrific in helping to win gold, it was a couple of kids who will be playing in Southern California soon who gave Knight a lead he would not relinquish.
On Tuesday night, Alex Turcotte (Los Angeles Kings) and Trevor Zegras (Anaheim Ducks) pushed Team USA to a two-goal lead and Knight stood tall in leading the Americans to a 2-0 championship victory in Edmonton.
This was the fifth time the gold medal game at the WJC featured rivals Canada and the U.S., with Team USA winning the past four championship meetings.
The shutout was Knight’s third of the WJC — which tied Levi for the tournament lead — and was the first shutout ever pitched by Team USA in the medal round at this event.
Knight, not surprisingly, was named ‘Player of the Game’ for Team USA following the victory.
”No one person can win a game on their own,” Knight told TSN moments after the final horn. “Our team battled so hard from start to finish. Every time we went into the locker room, we had so much energy. I am so proud of the guys.”
The last time Team USA beat Canada in the WJC final came at Montreal in a 2017 shootout.
Tuesday night, Knight — the 13th overall pick of the Panthers in the 2019 draft — faced a lot of shots from a loaded Canadian squad, one that had not trailed in the entire tournament until Turcotte made it 1-0 early in the first.
Coming into the night, Levi (who was drafted by the Panthers in the seventh round back in October) was the breakout star of the tournament, leading Canada into the gold medal game with numbers that were among the best in WJC history.
Prior to his date with Team USA, Levi had gone 6-0 by making close to 98 percent of his saves with three shutouts and a 0.53 GAA.
Tuesday, Levi played from behind for the first time in the tournament (Canada had outscored its overmatched opponents 31-4) as Team USA scored early in the first and second.
Team USA took the initial lead with 6:35 left in the opening period.
A long shot from Drew Helleson (who is Knight’s teammate at Boston College) was redirected by Turcotte as he crashed through the slot and put it past Levi.
Turcotte was the fifth-overall pick in 2019 by Los Angeles and played at Wisconsin last year. He’s expected to join the Kings in training camp this week.
Just 32 seconds into the second period, Team USA made it 2-0 as Levi could not find a puck that bounded off the back of the cage and Trevor Zegras collected it and swept it home.
Zegras was the ninth-overall pick in 2019 and is expected to travel with Turcotte (and others, per Bob McKenzie) to Southern California to join Anaheim’s camp.
Levi had to make some fantastic saves to keep things close as Team USA came out firing on its first power play midway through the second.
Knight, obviously, made some big saves as well to keep Canada at bay.
With about five minutes left, he ended up flat on his back and kept the puck out of the net. He also lost his stick a couple of times but Canada still failed to score.
With 3:05 remaining, Connor McMichael came in on a breakaway and was stopped by Knight for what was his 29th save of the evening.
Levi vacated the net with 2:19 left and 19 saves; Knight ended the gold medal match with 34 saves.
It turned out to be a great tournament for Knight following an inauspicious start as he gave up four goals on 12 shots in a preliminary loss to Russia in the opener.
”I don’t care about anything personal,’’ Knight said. “It’s a team sport and we didn’t play our best in the first game. We battled back. We lost that game and that was it. We hit the ground running after that.”
Following the game, Levi was named to the all-tournament team.
As Turcotte and Zegras head to California for camp, the two Florida goalies are headed back to school.
Knight was hoping to try and win a national championship with Boston College last year but COVID-19 ended his freshman season prematurely.
He is currently 4-0 with a 1.50 GAA, a .955 save percentage and two shutouts for the second-ranked Eagles (5-1-0) so far this year.
Levi has yet to play at Northeastern University but he is expected to travel to Boston and be in the lineup soon enough.
The Huskies (3-3-2) are ranked 14th in the nation and will have 14 games left after this weekend.
Despite the two goalies both playing in the Boston area, Tuesday’s meeting may have been their last of the season.
Boston College and Northeastern are not scheduled to play in the regular season.
The annual Beanpot Tournament, which features BC, Boston University, Northeastern and Harvard, has been canceled for the first time since the 1950s.
The two teams could meet in the NCAA tournament if one is held.
LUNDELL LEADS FINLAND AGAIN
In the bronze medal game, Anton Lundell — Florida’s most recent first-round pick — helped lead Finland to a 4-1 victory over Russia.
Lundell, who scored six goals with 10 points in seven games in Edmonton, tied the score at 1 5:05 into the second period.
He then iced the victory by scoring into an empty net with 1:28 remaining.
Lundell is expected to finish this season playing for HIFK in Finland’s Liiga along with Florida center Henrik Borgstrom.
He remains tied for fifth in the entire league in scoring with 20 points in 17 games.
Both Lundell and Florida forward Aleksi Saarela are tied for second in the Liiga with 12 goals each.
Saarela has decided to stay in his native Finland at least to start this season but it is probably unlikely that he joins the Panthers before 2021-22 training camp.
All three players — Lundell, Saarela and Borgstrom — are expected to play with the Panthers next season.