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GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Late in the third period, with the lead growing to three and then four goals, Rutger McGroarty and Ryan Leonard each kissed the sold-out Scandinavian crowd goodbye.
With 31 seconds left, bad blood boiled at center ice as 5-foot-9 Canadiens prospect Lane Hutson threw a punch at 6-foot-4 Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson.
It was the culmination of a moment years in the making, and the sigh of relief for the group of American teenagers who made it happen.
For two years, the 2004 U.S. team had been talking about getting revenge on the Swede, who beat them with goaltender Hugo Havelid for the gold medal at the 2022 U-18 World Championship in Germany.
At the time, the Americans outscored the Swedes 51-15, but still lost 6-4. With the stage set Thursday, they promised a different story in their world junior gold medal rematch.
In Gothenburg on Friday, they delivered on that promise, winning 6-2.
In the early days, it seemed as if history would repeat itself.
On the one hand, the combination of Sabers first-round pick Noah Ostlund and Canucks first-round pick Jonathan Reckerimaki created the first few scoring chances of the game. Østlund took a rebound from Lekkerimäki and took a high shot, then scrambled in front of the goal a few minutes later to score. The line, and again Ostlund, danced the rush on the first power play of the game.
On the other side, the crowd, who had been on their feet from the opening showdown, jumped, clapped and sang, shouted “HU-GO!” He scored for the first time with 4:37 left in the first period after stopping Islanders prospect Quinn Finley during intermission.
But the Americans eventually broke through, with 3:04 left in the first period when Sharks first-round pick Will Smith made a backdoor slap pass to Rangers first-round pick Gabe Perreault. For the first time, the crowd was silenced. Delay penalty.
The Jets captain drew a penalty and had a secondary assist on a cross-ice pass to Smith, who 24 hours earlier was talking about unfinished business and the mutual hatred between the two teams. It was McGroarty, a first-round pick. .
The second one was again in 2004, this time with Lightning first-rounder Isaac Howard winning in five holes over Haverid, who had jumped out on a breakaway after the Swede had tied the score on a chip from the Blues’ Otto Stenberg. I decided. The Americans regain the lead.
Then Howard again, and again in the fifth hole, beat Haverid on a bad angle shot late in the period to extend the American lead to 3-1.
McGroarty, in the second half of the frame, forced the Hurricanes’ Felix Unger Solm to tie the game on open ice in the offensive zone, before scoring into an empty net.
The win gave USA Hockey its sixth gold medal at the World Juniors, tying it with Finland for the third-most gold medals at the under-20 level.
But it was also more than that.
A day earlier, alternate captain and Flyers first-rounder Cutter Gauthier said he was “just dreaming of beating them on our home field” after they “robbed the gold medal from our necks.”
They ripped it off.
(Photo: Christinne Muschi/Canadian Press via AP)
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