U.S. Defeats Canada 6-5 In Junior Championships; John Carlson Becomes American Hero

Video of John Carlson’s goal that not only won the game against Canada, 6-5, but also gave the United States the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Don’t forget, you can watch the game again Wednesday night at 6 p.m. EST on the NHL Network.

(via RealClearSports)

Even if you don’t like hockey, you really don’t want to miss this contest, which featured back and forth action throughout, several lead spikes, comeback attempts, an unbelievable crowd, spectacular goals, and incredible saves. It truly had everything, including a victory for the Americans, the silencing of that raucous crowd and a nation with one single shot, and a bunch of 20 year olds belting “And the Home of the Brave!” at the tops of their lungs.

Who knows, you might even find you like this weird game they play on this hard, cold surface called “ice”.

The United States broke the Canadians streak of five consecutive gold medals at the World Junior Hockey Championships with a shot from John Carlson that gave the Americans a 6-5 win over the host country.

This gold medal game had its fair share of highlights, as the Americans and Canadians scored a total of 11 goals. Both starting goaltenders, Mike Lee and Jake Allen, were chased out of net. Carlson and Eberle scored clutch goals and each had two goals in this game.

Jordan Eberle scores his second goal of this gold medal game in 1:30 to tie the game up at five. This is the second two goal lead the Americans have given up to the Canadians in this tournament. The game will now go to a 20 minute sudden death overtime and if no one scores after that, a shootout.

Jordan Eberle has brought the Canadians back to a one goal deficit with a goal with three minutes left in the third period.

Shortly after D’Amigo’s goal, Derek Stepan drives to the net to give the United States a 5-3 lead with thirteen minutes left in the third period. The United States had a two goal lead the last time they faced the Canadians on New Years Eve before eventually losing the game in a shootout.

The Canadian team has now replaced Jake Allen with Martin Jones. Allen allowed five goals on 28 shots and basically led the Canadians to the gold medal game with two shutouts in five games in this tournament.

Jerry D’Amigo gives the United States the 4-3 lead with 15 minutes left in the third period. Derek Stepan earns the assist on the goal.

The Canadians tie the game up at three coming off a goal from Taylor Hall. Hall is the highly touted prospect heading into the 2010 Draft and will most likely be the number one pick.

John Carlson scored a power play goal 1:03 into the second period to give the United States a 3-2 lead. The power play comes off a penalty taken by Alex Pietrangelo, Blues prospect, as Pietrangelo took a two minute minor and a ten minute misconduct for checking from behind as the first period ended.

Luke Adam, a Buffalo Sabres prospect, gives the Canadians an early 1-0 lead as the game is four minutes into the first period. The one noticable thing about this game is that it is very fast paced and a lot of back and forth action with the wider ice.

Toronto Star’s Damien Cox has a brief look at the ten players to watch during Tuesday night’s gold medal game, five from the Canadian team and five from the United States. This should be the cheat sheet for who to keep an eye on while watching the game.

Seeing as the World Junior Championship is being hosted in Saskatoon, Saskatechwan, Canadians across the country are trying to help their Canadian team win in the final tonight. Canadian host James Duthie from

Canadians are passionate about their hockey and especially their national teams. Seeing the Canadians win gold on Canadian ice can only make the situation better. This means that if the Canadians reach the gold medal game in the Olympics, the opposing team is going to need to be sequestered.