ST. PAUL – Carter George and Team Canada found the podium at the World Junior Hockey Championship, ending the country’s three-year medal drought.
George, who hails from Thunder Bay, made 32 stops and the offence reeled off three straight goals on Monday afternoon to pull away from Finland and claim a 6-3 triumph in the bronze-medal game at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.
It was all about making the most of the situation Canada was handed, after being knocked out of gold-medal competition on Sunday by Czechia, and while the 6-4 semifinal loss was still painful, winning bronze was a nice consolation for George and his teammates.
“The last few years haven’t gone that well for Canada, so to get a medal is huge,” said George, a 2024 second-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings. "Not a lot of people can say they got a medal at World Juniors, so it’s a true honour and I’m so thankful I was able to do it with this group.”
The Owen Sound Attack prospect got the start after sitting the quarterfinal and semifinal match in favour of Jack Ivankovic, who did not dress for the bronze-medal game.
As much as he may have struggled at times during the round robin portion of the tournament, allowing 13 goals in four appearances, the 19-year-old goaltender stood on his head in the third, the Finns unleashing 17 of their 35 shots in the final frame.
His best save came seven minutes in, a point-blank pad save on Aatos Koivu, a redirection of a rapid-fire, cross-crease pass by teammate Heikki Ruohonen, seeking the goal that would have cut Canada’s lead to 5-4.
Canadian coach Dale Hunter said George’s play in the third was a key to Canada holding off a desperate Finn team.
“Finland put a big push on, which I figured they’d do that – and they did,” Hunter said. “He had to make some big saves to keep it or it might have been overtime.”
Instead, Canada got the insurance goal it needed off the stick of Gavin McKenna, on a give-and-go, with a little assist from the post, the Penn State product and a likely top pick in next June’s NHL draft, finishing with four goals and 10 assists in seven games.
Finishing the tournament on a high note was important, though McKenna said it’s still a little sour not taking gold.
“Yeah, it was a tough game yesterday, so it could have been tough for us to get up for this game. I’m proud of our group, they played hard,” McKenna said.
Once again it was a back-and-forth contest in the early going, echoing their round-robin match-up that saw the two teams trade the first six goals before Canada pulled out a 7-4 win.
“I think we can compete with any team in this tournament and we did a really good job tonight and we found a way,” George said.
“At the start of the game, everyone’s trying to feel it out, trying to get into the game. Obviously both teams played yesterday, so it’s back-to-back and guys are just trying to find their legs. It was one of those games at the start where we’ve just got to find a way to shut the door after that.”
Canada opened the scoring 70 seconds in, Sam O’Reilly beating Petteri Rimpinen on a 2-on-1 with Michael Hage, the leading point-getter at the World Juniors.
Two minutes later Finland’s Arttu Valila tied things up, firing though traffic to make it a 1-1 game.
Braeden Cootes restored Canada’s one-goal lead with five minutes to go in the first, but a costly penalty led to Julius Miettinen’s power-play goal at the 11:57 mark.
Turnabout is fair play.
The Finns took a late penalty and Zayne Parekh slammed home his fifth goal of the tournament,
Unlike the round robin, Canada did give up another tying goal to the Finns.
Captain Porter Martone doubled Canada’s lead 1:47 into the second and 3:40 later O’Reilly took a laser pass from McKenna and redirected it past Rimpinen, the power-play tally giving Canada a 5-2 lead.
Ruohonen got one back for Finland with six minutes to go in the second, but despite period-long pressure by the Finns in the third, McKenna found Hage for Canada’s sixth goal, putting the game out of reach.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Canada, O’Reilly (Hage, McKenna) 1:10. 2. Finland, Valila (Ruohonen) 3:23. 3. Canada, Cootes (Verhoeff, Greentree) 4:57. 4. Finland, Miettinen (Boelius, Kuhta) 11:58 pp. 5. Canada, Parekh (Hage, McKenna) 18:41 pp. Penalties: Parekh CAN (holding) 10:22, Boelius FIN (cross checking) 17:46.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Canada, Martone (Iginla, Parekh) 1:47. 7. Canada, O’Reilly (McKenna, Hage) 5:27 pp. 8. Finland, Ruohonen (Tuuva) 14:18. Penalties: Ruohonen FIN (slashing) 4:42, Hemming FIN (slashing) 9:53, Misa CAN (hooking) 18:33.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 9. Canada, McKenna (Hage) 13:35. Penalties: Bench minor FIN (too many men, served by Tuuva) 3:51, MacKenzie CAN (holding) 5:58,
GAME DATA – SOG – Finland 10-8-17-35, Canada 14-8-6-28; Power plays (goals-chances) – Finland (1-3), Canada (2-3); Goaltenders – Finland: Petteri Rimpinen; Canada: Carter George; A: 7,298.