<p>LANDSHUT, Germany – In a tournament that felt like it had an inevitable ending with the Americans outscoring their opponents 43-11 coming into the gold-medal game, Sweden flipped the script. Despite being outshot 51-15, the highly-skilled and – in this case – highly-opportunistic Swedes managed to beat the heavily-favored U.S. to win just its second gold medal ever at the IIHF Men’s World Under-18 Championship.</p>



<p>This Swedish team took the long road back after dealing with a few players testing positive for coronavirus upon arrival, forcing quarantines for those infected, then they lost their tournament opener to Latvia, and then had to deal with injuries during the tournament, never having full lineup at any point in this particular event. &nbsp;They ended with the tournament’s top scoring forward, top scoring defenseman and its best goaltender, but it was that last player – goaltender Hugo Havelid – who made sure Sweden left Germany with gold medals on top of their iconic golden jerseys.</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="161"></div>



<p>In the dramatic finale of this tournament, USA struck early after controlling for a long stretch of the game. Cole Spicer forced a turnover to Devin Kaplan, who found Ryan Leonard all alone on the left side for an easy goal. Sweden turned the tide of the momentum with a sniped shot from distance by Oskar Pettersson that went high blocker on goalie Trey Augustine. The Swedes struck again 1:03 later with a stunning goal as Noah Ostlund danced through the U.S. defense and was able to whack a rolling puck out of mid-air to make it goals on back-to-back shots and take a 2-1 lead. A short while later, U.S. forward Frank Nazar went end to end and fired a bad-angle shot that beat Havelid short side to draw even heading into the intermission.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="135"></div>



<p>In the second period, penalty trouble proved costly for the U.S. as Sweden scored on consecutive power plays, first on a Liam Ohgren wrister that beat Augustine five-hole and next on a five-on-three disadvantage where Noah Ostlund fired a rebound just under the bar to extend the advantage. The Americans got one back with both teams skating four-on-four as Logan Cooley found Rutger McGroarty who blasted a one-timer up top to make it 4-3.</p>



<p>Team USA couldn’t hold that momentum, however. Despite peppering the net in the third period Havelid kept turning pucks away and Sweden found the next goal as Ohgren was sprung on a mini-breakaway and made a devastating move to make it 5-3. With desperation set in, the U.S. pulled their goaltender with over three minutes remaining. McGroarty scored his eighth goal of the tournament from the doorstep to give USA life. However, with 31 seconds remaining, Jonathan Lekkerimaki scored an empty-netter for his tournament-leading 15th point to secure the gold.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="164"></div>



<p>Havelid finished the game with 47 saves, including a few key ones down the stretch when Sweden found itself battling penalties in the third period. He proved to be the difference.</p>



<p><strong>Bronze Medal to Finland</strong></p>



<p>Finland skated away with the bronze medal in what started as a very tight contest against upstart Czechia that had secured a huge late win against Canada in the preliminary round and put a brief scare into the Americans in the semifinal.</p>



<p>Joakim Kemell, Finland’s top-ranked player in the draft, scored twice and added an assist, while captain Jere Lassila put up four points including the empty-netter to ice the game and secure a 4-1 win for Finland.</p>



<p>Kemell missed one game due to illness, but accounted for six goals and eight points over his five games played. Additionally, 15-year-old defenseman Aron Kiviharju finished the tournament with six assists over six games, which was tied for fourth among all defenseman. Kemell, Kiviharju and 2023 draft-eligible forward Kasper Halttunen were named Finland’s best three players of the tournament.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="3" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="172"></div>



<p><strong>Tournament Awards</strong></p>



<p>Media All-Star Team:</p>



<p>Forwards: Logan Cooley (USA), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (SWE) Jiri Kulich (CZE)<br>Defense: Lane Hutson (USA), Tomas Hamara (CZE)<br>Goalie: Hugo Havelid (SWE)</p>



<p>MVP: Jiri Kulich (CZE)</p>



<p>I voted on the all-star team along with the rest of the assembled media. My ballot is almost identical except that I voted for Mattias Havelid for one of my two defensemen along with Hutson. Mattias Havelid had 12 points in the tournament, tops among blueliners, and was Sweden’s most trusted and utilized defenseman. All due respect to my fellow voters, this was a massive oversight. He was the best defenseman in this tournament and his 12 points actually tie him for second all-time in single-tournament points by a defenseman. </p>



<p>As for MVP, our votes are due before the end of the first intermission of the gold medal game. That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for a magical performance like the one Hugo Havelid turned in to sway votes. So I also voted for Kulich, who led the tournament with nine goals and seemingly could turn the tides of games with one shot. Very impressive and a deserved honor.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="4" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="190"></div>



<p><strong>Directorate Award Winners</strong></p>



<p>Best Goaltender: Hugo Havelid (SWE)</p>



<p>Best Defenseman: Lane Hutson (USA)</p>



<p>Best Forward: Logan Cooley (USA)</p>



<p><strong>Hugo was Huge</strong></p>



<p>The Swedish netminder stands at only 5-foot-10, which has left some scouts wondering if there is a place for him in the NHL Draft, but Hugo Havelid may as well have been 10 feet tall the way he played most of the game against Team USA. He faced a barrage of 51 shots including many on multiple power plays for a U.S. team that has multiple first-rounders on each of its two units.</p>



<p>While he still gave up four goals, there were so many times in the game he stopped momentum dead in its tracks. He had a few big glove saves and a few net-front scrambles that he battled through and found the puck. He was his team’s rock.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="5" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="141"></div>



<p>The son of former NHLer Niclas Havelid, whose twin brother Mattias was Sweden’s No. 1 defenseman and uncle Magnus Havelid was the head coach, got to celebrate a great triumph on the ice with family. Not only was he the backstop for a gold-medal team, he was named to the tournament all-star team and received the directorate award as the tournament’s best goaltender.</p>



<p>He finished the U18 Men’s World Championship with a .929 save percentage after allowing 12 goals – only eight at even strength – in five contests. Havelid was the only primary starter for his team that finished with a save percentage north of .900 which is yet another reminder that if you’re looking for goalies for your favorite team, this year isn’t a great one for that.</p>



<p>As for what this particular tournament means for Havelid’s draft stock? You’ll just have to wait as I’ll have a post-U18 stock watch for Daily Faceoff readers very soon.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="6" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="159"></div>



<p><strong>Sweden rides Djugardens Trio</strong></p>



<p>Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Noah Ostlund and Liam Ohgren have played together for years, going back to their youth days. They accounted for five of the six goals scored with two coming from Ohgren, two from Ostlund and the dagger from Lekkerimaki into the empty net.</p>



<p>Lekkerimaki had four points in the game to push his tournament total to 15, falling one point shy of William Nylander’s record of 16 for most points by a Swedish player in a single tournament. Nylander did get an extra game, however, so Lekkerimaki has the points-per-game advantage there, if you want to get technical.</p>



<p>That group was Sweden’s top line and three of the forwards on the top power play unit. Combined, those three forwards scored 12 goals in the tournament and showed that sometimes shot quality can be better than shot quantity when those players are as skilled as these three.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="7" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="151"></div>



<p><strong>USA comes up short</strong></p>



<p>A steamroller of offense finally met its match in the quality goaltending of Hugo Havelid. This U.S. roster will have a number of high first-round picks from its ranks in the 2022 and 2023 NHL Drafts, which is why this will probably leave an empty feeling for a group that was simply cruising.</p>



<p>The shot total was 51-15. Most times you win that game, but the Americans couldn’t get a big save when they needed it and probably missed the net as much as they hit it in the third period. There were plenty of bright spots in the tournament, but missing gold is always difficult since this team is together for two years building up to this event.</p>



<p>USA has now gone without a gold medal at an event it had typically dominated since 2017. Quinn Hughes and Brady Tkachuk were on that team to put the timeline in perspective. It’s the longest the Americans have gone without a medal at the U18s since the tournament began.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="8" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="172"></div>



<p>Among USA’s standout performers: Captain Rutger McGroarty had eight goals to lead the Americans and was one off the tournament lead. He was perhaps their best player in the gold-medal game with two big goals and a lot of havoc created at the net-front.</p>



<p>Isaac Howard finished the tournament with a team-best 11 points, while Logan Cooley had 10 and was honored as a tournament all-star and was the directorate award winner for best forward.</p>



<p>Lane Hutson was the tournament’s best defenseman as voted by the directorate and finished the event with eight points, all assists.</p>



<p>_____</p>



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