<p>For the first time in tournament history, Team USA has won gold at the IIHF World Junior Championship in back-to-back years.</p>
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<p>Teddy Stiga (NSH) scored the golden goal in overtime off a terrific stretch pass by Zeev Buium (MIN) to clinch a 4-3 victory for the Americans. Brodie Ziemer (BUF) picked up the secondary assist on Stiga&#8217;s first goal of the tournament.</p>
<p>Team USA battled back from a 3-1 deficit late in the second period and maintained the tie in the third before controlling the play throughout most of 3-on-3 overtime. Stiga&#8217;s goal came just 8:04 into the sudden-death session.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">TEDDY STIGA SCORES THE GOLDEN GOAL 🚨</p>
<p>TEAM USA WINS BACK TO BACK GOLD MEDALS!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldJuniors?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldJuniors</a> <a href="https://t.co/dkUcdLjRGB">pic.twitter.com/dkUcdLjRGB</a></p>
<p>&mdash; TSN (@TSN_Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1876109599037645214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Team USA has now won gold at the World Juniors seven times in its history (2004, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2024, and 2025). After routinely finishing near the bottom of the table in the 20th century, Team USA has medaled 13 times in the last two decades.</p>
<p>Jesse Kiiskinen (DET), Tuomas Uronen (VGK), and Emil Pieniniemi (PIT) scored before the midway mark of the gold-medal game for Team Finland, which upset Team Sweden in the semifinals to clinch a spot on the podium. James Hagens (2025) tacked on a goal of his own in the first period, but the Americans found themselves in a 3-1 hole less than five minutes into the second.</p>
<p>But after controlling the balance of the play for the vast majority of the middle frame, Team USA finally broke through in the final three minutes. In the midst of a 15-4 run of shots in their favour, the Americans tied the game off goals by Brandon Svoboda (SJ) and Cole Hutson (WSH) less than two minutes apart.</p>
<p>Team USA outshot the Finns 11-5 in the final 20 minutes of play, bringing the total for regulation time to 34-22, but couldn&#8217;t beat goaltender Petteri Rimpinen (und.) before time expired. That set the stage for overtime, where the Americans took full advantage of all the extra room on the ice at Canadian Tire Centre and finally put the game (and the tournament) to bed.</p>
<p>As most onlookers expected, Team USA captain Ryan Leonard (WSH) was named tournament MVP after scoring five goals and three assists in seven games. He was also named one of three forwards on the tournament all-star team, as well as the top forward overall. Rounding out the all-star team: Jakub Stancl (CZE &#8211; STL), Gabe Perreault (USA &#8211; NYR), Axel Sandin Pellikka (SWE &#8211; DET), Hutson, and Rimpinen.</p>
<h2>Best of the rest</h2>
<ul>
<li>Switching to the first person for a second: I did <em>not </em>expect Team Sweden to lose in the semifinals. I certainly didn&#8217;t think they&#8217;d fail to medal entirely. But that&#8217;s exactly what happened, with their 3-2 shootout loss to Team Czechia keeping them off the podium for the fourth time in the last seven tournaments. Did you know that the Swedes have only ever won gold twice at the World Juniors? Once in 1981, once (in Calgary) in 2012 &#8230; and that&#8217;s it. Sweden never led in Sunday&#8217;s bronze-medal game against the Czechs, with David Edstrom (NSH) scoring twice in the losing effort. Ultimately, it was Eduard Sale (SEA) who sealed the deal with a pair of goals in the shootout and one in regulation time. Czechmate!</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">EDUARD SALE WINS THE BRONZE MEDAL FOR CZECHIA 🔥<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldJuniors?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldJuniors</a> <a href="https://t.co/gIyxQodwFP">pic.twitter.com/gIyxQodwFP</a></p>
<p>&mdash; TSN (@TSN_Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1876051734885257453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 5, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>


For the first time in tournament history, Team USA has won gold at the IIHF World Junior Championship in back-to-back years.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2109" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="328"></div>
Teddy Stiga (NSH) scored the golden goal in overtime off a terrific stretch pass by Zeev Buium (MIN) to clinch a 4-3 victory for the Americans. Brodie Ziemer (BUF) picked up the secondary assist on Stiga's first goal of the tournament.

Team USA battled back from a 3-1 deficit late in the second period and maintained the tie in the third before controlling the play throughout most of 3-on-3 overtime. Stiga's goal came just 8:04 into the sudden-death session.

https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1876109599037645214

Team USA has now won gold at the World Juniors seven times in its history (2004, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2024, and 2025). After routinely finishing near the bottom of the table in the 20th century, Team USA has medaled 13 times in the last two decades.

Jesse Kiiskinen (DET), Tuomas Uronen (VGK), and Emil Pieniniemi (PIT) scored before the midway mark of the gold-medal game for Team Finland, which upset Team Sweden in the semifinals to clinch a spot on the podium. James Hagens (2025) tacked on a goal of his own in the first period, but the Americans found themselves in a 3-1 hole less than five minutes into the second.

But after controlling the balance of the play for the vast majority of the middle frame, Team USA finally broke through in the final three minutes. In the midst of a 15-4 run of shots in their favour, the Americans tied the game off goals by Brandon Svoboda (SJ) and Cole Hutson (WSH) less than two minutes apart.

Team USA outshot the Finns 11-5 in the final 20 minutes of play, bringing the total for regulation time to 34-22, but couldn't beat goaltender Petteri Rimpinen (und.) before time expired. That set the stage for overtime, where the Americans took full advantage of all the extra room on the ice at Canadian Tire Centre and finally put the game (and the tournament) to bed.

As most onlookers expected, Team USA captain Ryan Leonard (WSH) was named tournament MVP after scoring five goals and three assists in seven games. He was also named one of three forwards on the tournament all-star team, as well as the top forward overall. Rounding out the all-star team: Jakub Stancl (CZE - STL), Gabe Perreault (USA - NYR), Axel Sandin Pellikka (SWE - DET), Hutson, and Rimpinen.
<h2>Best of the rest</h2>
<ul>
 	<li>Switching to the first person for a second: I did <em>not </em>expect Team Sweden to lose in the semifinals. I certainly didn't think they'd fail to medal entirely. But that's exactly what happened, with their 3-2 shootout loss to Team Czechia keeping them off the podium for the fourth time in the last seven tournaments. Did you know that the Swedes have only ever won gold twice at the World Juniors? Once in 1981, once (in Calgary) in 2012 ... and that's it. Sweden never led in Sunday's bronze-medal game against the Czechs, with David Edstrom (NSH) scoring twice in the losing effort. Ultimately, it was Eduard Sale (SEA) who sealed the deal with a pair of goals in the shootout and one in regulation time. Czechmate!</li>
</ul>
https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1876051734885257453

World Juniors Final Recap: Team USA repeats with OT win over Finland

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