After a dominant tournament, the United States finally fell to Russia for the second straight year in the semifinal of the World Junior Championship on Monday.
2016 World Junior scores: Russia, Finland advance to gold medal game as USA falls
Russia ousted the U.S. for the second straight year.
Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Russia will play host country Finland for the gold medal at 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The United States plays Sweden for the bronze at 9 a.m. ET that morning.
USA ran into penalty trouble early and often. After surviving their first kill of the game in the first period, Arizona Coyotes prospect Christian Dvorak scored to give the Americans the early 1-0 advantage. Captain Zach Werenski and Sonny Milano assisted on the goal.
Despite the lead, USA goalie Alex Nedeljkovic was forced to make two outstanding saves while his team killed off a 5-on-3 chance. Nedeljkovic finished the game with 31 saves.
But the second period belonged to Russia. Pavel Kraskovski scored midway through the period off a pass from Yegor Korshkov, and Korshkov got a goal of his own just over a minute later to take a 2-1 lead.
USA never really mounted an offensive until the final moments of the game, and Russia survived to advance.
Finland narrowly edges Sweden to host gold medal game
After a tournament full of dazzling goals from both sides, Sweden and Finland focused mostly on defensive hockey in their semifinal matchup. In the end, the tournament’s host country came out on top.
Finland is heading to its second World Junior Championship gold medal game in three years. The Finns beat Sweden in 2014 in Stockholm.
Sweden actually got on the board first on Monday when Rasmus Asplund took a pass from Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Dmytro Timashov and scored in the first period. That was Timashov's seventh and final point of the tournament.
Finland had waited for captain Mikko Rantanen to make a big impact all tournament, and he did so in the semifinal game. He assisted on Roope Hintz's tying goal in the second period and assisted on Antti Kalapudas' game-winner on the power play later in the same period. Kasperi Kapanen assisted on both goals as well, and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 21 saves in the victory.
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