Like every good summer binge watch, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship hasn’t been short on drama.
Its biggest plot twist so far? The ouster of defending gold medal champion Team USA, which fell 4-2 to Czechia in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup. The United States had been unbeaten through preliminary tournament action, and Logan Cooley had them up 1-0 over Czechia midway through the first period. Then Czechia responded with three unanswered goals from there.
The U.S. game really began deteriorating in the second, partially due to top defenseman Luke Hughes being hobbled by an injury suffered earlier in the night. Penalty troubles didn’t help matters either, and by the final buzzer it was tournament over for USA. They walked away with a fifth-place finish, failing to reach the podium for only the second time in seven years.
Four teams are now left to battle it out in Friday’s pair of semifinal games.
Can Czechia continue its magical run with another upset against Canada? Who has the upper hand between neighboring nations Sweden and Finland?
It’s all up ahead.
Get set for the final three games of the WJC with a primer on where we’ve been, who’s leading the way, and what sort of finale is on tap.
What’s happened so far?
Quick recap: The 2022 World Juniors was originally meant to take place in December and January. But a crush of COVID-19 cases among participating teams forced the IIHF to postpone — and subsequently reschedule — the event. Results accrued from games that were played back then were nullified. Every team was given a clean slate.
This time around, Russia and Belarus were banned from the tournament following Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine in February. Latvia entered the field instead, joining Group A with Canada, Czechia, Finland and Slovakia. Group B was comprised of Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.
Many teams iced different lineups in August than they would have last December. Owen Power and Kaiden Guhle didn’t return for Canada. Matty Beniers and Jake Sanderson were absent for the USA. On it went like that for most countries, though the on-ice groups remained reliably strong.
Preliminary round action got underway at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Aug. 9. Each team played four games, and the top eight nations advanced. Canada and the USA topped their respective group leaderboards with 12 points (4-0-0). Slovakia (1-3) and Austria (0-4) were eliminated.
All four quarterfinal games took place on Wednesday. Finland topped Germany…
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