SASKATOON -- Canada-U.S.A. the hard way.
Few figured it would work out this way. Many watched the sizable Swedes throughout the first two periods of the semifinal against the U.S. here last night and wondered if indeed Canada could beat them.
Now they don't have to play them.
The Americans came on late and scored a stunning 5-2 win over Tre Kronar here last night to create the third Canada-USA gold medal game in history at the world juniors.
The neighbouring nations met in 1997, with Canada winning, and the Americans won in 2004 when Marc-Andre Fleury had that memorable major meltdown in goal.
"It's going to be a re-run of New Year's Eve, but with a gold medal on the line," enthused American defenceman Cam Fowler when he came off the ice last night.
"They're going for their sixth straight gold medal and they're at home, but I think this is the match-up the fans here wanted. It's the two best in the world to be the best in the world," he said.
The U.S., you may get the idea, was a bit more over the moon than the Canadians earlier in the day.
When you win a world juniors semifinal 6-1 against Switzerland, even if the result was in some doubt for some time, the thrill-of-victory factor isn't quite the same as it was, oh, say last year, when Jordan Eberle scored with 5.4 seconds remaining in regulation to save the Canadian bacon to set up a 6-5 shootout win.
The crowd of 13,427 had a great deal of difficulty getting into the game here yesterday.
The atmosphere was not even close to what it was here for Canada-USA in front of 15,171 on New Year's Eve.
But that shouldn't be a problem Tuesday night.
Nobody on the Canadian team was over the moon when they left the ice when it was over.
Indeed, they were a sober lot, head coach Willie Desjardins having peeled the paint off the dressing-room walls with his raised voice after they left the ice after the second period up only
3-1 on the Swiss team, which had recorded one of the greatest upsets in tournament history the night before against Russia.
But then again, the Canadians stood there in the mixed zone fielding very few questions about the game they just played as the focus shifted forward to the storyline since this started.
For the ninth straight year, Canada will go for gold, with a chance to become the first nation to ever win six world juniors in succession.
And if that seems ho-hum to you, you're not one of these kids.
And you're damn sure not Taylor Hall.
"Whenever I think of Christmas, I think of living in Calgary and playing on my backyard rink and then going in my house and watching Canada play in the world juniors," he said.
Like every other kid, Hall said at other times of the year skating on that backyard rink it was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
But not at Christmas.
It was the gold medal game in the world juniors.
"Standing here realizing I'm in the gold medal game of the world juniors is kind of surreal," said Hall, the projected No.-1 pick in the June entry draft, who scored two more goals in this one, his fourth and fifth of the tournament.
"This is such an exciting time. It's exciting to go to the world juniors. But it's another thing to be in the final. We had one goal when we started and now we've put ourselves in position to achieve that goal. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
Eberle admitted it couldn't compare with the semi-final against Russia last year in Ottawa.
"But it's still pretty exciting stuff," he said.
"The only record I'm worried about is six in a row," he said.
"Any time you have an opportunity to set your name in stone by doing something like that, it's going to be special to look back on. To win this gold medal game would be special.
"The only goal I have in mind is that gold medal."
Until now, says captain Patrice Cormier, "the guys don't think about six in a row."
Now, it'll be impossible not to.
"We want to make our place in history," he said.
But there's history to be made on the other side of the ice, too.
The Americans have only won this thing the once. To win a second time, this time in Canada, that would be, well, twice as nice.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
