Hockeyhead

Canada defeated Sweden 5-1 in the gold medal game of the World Junior Championship.  The Canadians added empty netters from Jordan Eberle and Cody Hodgson to ice the Swedes for good.  Dustin Tokarski stopped 39 shots, looking calm and composed in his best outing of the tournament.

Hodgson and probable first overall pick John Tavares finished tied for the tournament scoring title with 16 points a piece.

The final was chippier than expected, and tempers were hot after Stefan Della Rovere took a rather cheap shot at Sweden’s goaltender Jacob Markstrom who was skating to the bench on a delayed penalty call.  Markstrom wandered away from his crease several times and paid the price on a few of his trips.

Markstrom had been one of the tournament’s brightest stars up until tonight’s gold medal game.  Pat Quinn came under some fire for his decision to stick with Tokarski in goal after he had allowed 5 goals against the Russians on Saturday.  Quinn’s patience paid some handsome dividends, as Tokarski was the difference in this one.