VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- First, let's take care of a little business. I thought the Russians would be too much for the Canadians in Thursday's gold-medal game of the World Junior Championships. As it turned out, I was dead wrong. Brent Sutter's team, backed by the rock-solid goaltending of Justin Pogge, blasted the Russians 5-0 before a crazed sellout crowd at GM Place in Vancouver.
The game was decided in a wild first period, which featured several shifts in momentum. The difference was Pogge, who turned back 15 shots in the first 15 minutes of the period, including a big stop of Nikolai "White Skates" Lemtyugov. Seconds later, he flashed his glove to snare a shot that had deflected off Canadian defenseman Marc Staal (the Rangers' 12th pick in '05).
Off the ensuing draw, Pogge caught a break when Alexander Radulov's blast from the left point rang off the post. The sound of the sizzling rubber against the cold, hard iron must have jump-started the Canadians.
As the shift continued, the trio of Michael Blunden (Blackhawks, 43rd, 2005), Benoit Pouliot (Wild, fourth, '05) and Jonathan Toews (draft eligible in '07) did an excellent job of working the puck below the dots in the attacking zone. Suddenly, the Russians, who had seemed poised to grab the lead, were back on their heels.
Next, Sutter sent out Ryan O'Marra (Islanders, 15th, '05), Tommy Pyatt (Rangers, 107th, '05) and little-used Guillaume Latendresse (Canadiens, 45th, '05). The line continued the assault on the Russian defenders. The Canadians were pushing back and getting chances. The puck seemed stuck in Russia's end of the ice.
Canada's top line of Steve Downie (Flyers, 29th, '05), Dustin Boyd (Flames, 98th, '04) and Blake Comeau (Islanders, 47th, '04) were next up. They continued to pressure the Russians. Downie stepped out from behind the net with the puck on his forehand. He took one quick stride and pushed a low shot at Russian goalie Anton Khudobin, who fanned on the bad-angle chance. It was the first time the Russians trailed in a game since their opening match, and before the horn sounded, they took another big hit.
At 18:56, Comeau batted his own rebound past Khudobin to give the Canadians a 2-0 lead. The goal sent the home crowd into a frenzy.
After the game, Russian coach Sergey Mikhalev said those first two goals were "decisive," and thought his goaltender and defense could have been better in those fateful moments.
At the other end of the rink, Pogge stepped up in the big moments. He did it throughout the tournament. On the night, he stopped 35 shots en route to his second straight shutout. He'd blanked the Finns 4-0 in the semifinals.
Sutter said his goalie was an important catalyst for Canada.
"[Pogge] was a guy everybody fed off of," said Sutter, who became the first Canadian coach to win back-to-back gold medals. "He's a big, athletic goalie. He's very strong mentally and very composed. I've seen him play so many times [in the Western Hockey League, Sutter coaches Red Deer, while Pogge works the crease in Calgary], I know he's a tough goalie to beat."
Pogge, raised under difficult financial circumstances by his single mother, Annet, was a picture of pure joy as he sat with a half-dozen teammates on a media podium after the game. Gold medal around his neck, championship hat tilted to the side and eyes darting around the camera-filled room, Pogge was soaking it all in.
"I'm just living in the moment right now," said Pogge, who earned Team Canada Player of the Game honors.
As the Canadian players filed off the podium to make way for their coach, Pogge made one last save. He turned back to grab the tournament trophy that they placed on the table.
"I got it," a smiling Pogge told team captain Kyle Chipchura.
A vote for Justin
The IIHF Directorate and attending media both selected Finnish stopper Tuukka Rask the top goaltender in the tournament. While Rask was excellent, leading Finland to a bronze medal finish, I can't see how you can overlook Pogge.
The Canadian stopper allowed just six goals in the entire tournament and finished on a high note with back-to-back shutouts in the semifinal and gold medal games. As I said earlier, Pogge made all the big stops. With all due respect to Rask, Pogge should have been selected the tourney's top stopper.
Somewhere in the near future, Pogge and Rask will be competing for a goaltending job in Toronto. Both talented goalies were drafted by the Leafs, who'll be looking for a full-time goalie when Ed Belfour decides to hang up the pads.
The goal that wasn't
Early in the second period, down 2-0, "White Skates" Lemtyugov burst down the right-wing side and fired a shot at Pogge, who made the original stop. As he passed the net, Lemtyugov poked at the loose puck.
On the bang-bang play, it seemed the puck was lost in Pogge's pads. As American referee Brian Thul dropped the puck to continue play, a TSN replay showed that the puck had gone in the net.
At the next stoppage, the second after Lemtyugov's "goal," TSN showed the replay again. At that point, Thul was summoned to the scorer's table. He spoke on the phone with a tournament official in the press box. No doubt, he was told what had occurred.
Thul then skated to the Russian bench to give coach Mikhalev an explanation. Mikhalev, speaking after the game through an interpreter, said the referee told him the puck didn't go in the net. If Thul said that, he was wrong. The replay clearly showed the puck going completely over the line.
Either way, there was nothing Thul could do about it. The IIHF rule, like the NHL, stipulates the review must take place before play continues. Play continued, making the review moot.
In the world of the hurry-up faceoff, the NHL and IIHF must consider amending this rule. If there had been a few more seconds before the puck was dropped, tournament officials in the press box might have been able to call downstairs before the draw.
If we're going to have hurry-up faceoffs, perhaps the rule should be changed to allow the decision to be overturned within a designated time after the play. After all, isn't the idea of replay to get the calls right? The clock can still be reset to the time the play in question occurred.
Would the goal have made a difference? There's no way to know. Mikhalev and Sutter differed in their opinion on that question. Either way, it doesn't seem fair to turn a blind eye to an obvious mistake.
Moving up?
You can expect Sutter's name to be mentioned for just about every coaching vacancy in the NHL in the coming months. At this point, he said he's very happy coaching his Red Deer Rebels. Sutter is the owner/GM/coach of the Rebels.
Sutter said he's perfectly happy in his current situation. He loves teaching and working with the junior-aged kids. As for the future, he said an NHL team would really have to knock his socks off with an offer. "It would have to be a perfect scenario," he said.
Sutter didn't rule out a third consecutive turn as Canada's World Junior coach. Sutter is a perfect 12-0 in World Junior competition.
Another WJC coach, U.S. bench boss Walt Kyle, denied he was a candidate for the New Jersey Devils' opening. Kyle, who served as an assistant coach for the New York Rangers and Anaheim Mighty Ducks, is currently the coach at Northern Michigan.
"My family and I love it in Marquette," Kyle says. "It would have to be something special -- with the right people -- for me to consider moving."
Misplaced hype
Team USA finished a disappointing fourth after dropping a 4-2 decision to Finland in the bronze medal game. Last year, the Czechs posted an overtime win over the Americans for the bronze. In 2003, when then-coach Lou Vairo made the foolish move of starting the backup goalie in the bronze medal game, the Finns also stopped Team USA from taking a trip to the medal stand.
Coming into the tournament, The Hockey News and some members of the Canadian media installed the Americans as the team to beat. But it's easy to find fault with that pre-tourney assessment.
The American team was a very young squad in Vancouver. Normally, teams don't win if they need 17-year-olds to carry a heavy load. In Vancouver, the Americans leaned hard on big defender Erik Johnson and shifty forward Peter Mueller. Both are talented kids who'll be very hot prospects. In fact, some scouts feel that Erik Johnson could slip ahead of American teammate Phil Kessel on draft day.
Kessel, who made an impression at the tourney as a 16-year-old, faced unrealistic expectations coming into this year's competition. If he doesn't go directly to the NHL next year (and I hope he doesn't), Kessel will get a chance to play in his third WJC. At that time, he'll be in a better position to shoulder a big load.
Jack Johnson (Hurricanes, third overall, '05) also is eligible to return. Named to the media's all-tournament team, Johnson could be a major force in January 2007 and could also turn up on an NHL roster next season.
In the end, Team USA should have finished better than fourth and found a way to beat Switzerland in a key round-robin game. The tie against the Swiss changed the tournament for the Americans, forcing them onto a much more difficult path. It was a path they couldn't navigate.
Adieu, Canada
After Team USA's bronze medal loss, Jack Johnson waived good-bye to the Canadian fans.
"They were having a lot of fun with me and I had a lot of fun with them," said Johnson, who became a target of the crowd after he clipped Canadian forward Steve Downie in the head with an elbow in the final minute of their New Year's Eve clash. "It was just a last chance from me to acknowledge them and say good-bye."
E.J. Hradek
