August 21, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

John Shannon of Sportsnet reported that Edmonton and Red Deer would host the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships on December 5, 2018. After co-hosting the tournament in 2012 with Calgary, hockey fans in Edmonton were excited to watch the best under-20 players in the world in their city again.

However, they had to wait 1,354 days to witness a World Junior gold medal game live at Rogers Place. The 2021 World Juniors were played in Edmonton, but they were played in a bubble with no fans. COVID-19 robbed Edmonton fans of seeing a live tournament, and the Americans robbed Edmonton fans of at least seeing a Canadian gold medal victory on home ice.

The 2022 tournament was then awarded to Edmonton, and it was set to take place at its regularly scheduled time. Unfortunately, the Alberta government imposed a regulation that said that games at Rogers Place could only be filled to half capacity just two weeks before the tournament. The concessions were forced to be closed.

Tournament organizers had to deal with a customer service nightmare. Ticket packages were arbitrarily cut in half, and fans had no control over which games they got to keep and which games they lost. A lot of people opted to take their refunds because the fan experience was going to be sub par.

I went to four games in December. Even the Canada games were nowhere near half capacity, and the only refreshments available were water coolers located on the concourses. I still had a good time, but the atmosphere was severely lacking. At least I can say I was there to see then sixteen year old Connor Bedard become the youngest player to score four goals in a World Junior game.

A surge of the Omicron variant of COVID started raging in Edmonton about two weeks before the tournament began. The IIHF cancelled the remainder of the tournament just four days into it due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests.

It was a shame because Canada had a good looking team with quite a local feel to it. Oil Kings Jake Nieghbours (Airdrie), Dylan Guenther (Edmonton), and Sebastian Cossa (Ft. McMurray) were on the team. Sherwood Park native and soon to be Oil King Kaiden Guhle was named captain. Albertans Olen Zellweger (Fort Saskatchewan), Ridly Grieg (Lethbridge), and Ronan Seeley (Olds) were there too. Oilers fans had 2021 first rounder Xavier Bourgault to cheer for as well.

The good news was that the tournament would be rescheduled to August. The bad news was that the tournament would be played in August. The preliminary round of the tournament was poorly attended. There were many factors that led to the low attendance. 

Many of the top prospects that were playing in the shortened tournament declined invitations to play the August tournament to prepare for their professional camps. Those players included 2022 first and second overall picks Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec. Team Canada lost nine players from their December team. This was also the first tournament without team Russia who was banned from any IIHF event due to recent world events.

A big part of it was frustration over not being able to attend in 2021 and over the way that the tournament was handled in December. A lot of people get the last week of December off without having to take time off of work, which isn’t the case in August. The Oilers went on a long playoff run and fans spent money that might have otherwise been used for the WJC. Last but certainly not least was the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandals.

This was a watered down version of the World Junior Championships that was taking place at an unusual time and that was supporting an organization that is dealing with some dark matters. It was the perfect storm for poor attendance. It’s unfortunate for Edmonton fans, but it was what it was.

The medal round games were even poorly attended. The quarterfinal and the semifinal featuring Canada were only slightly more attended than Canada’s preliminary round games. The hockey being played was of high quality, but the small crowds were disappointing.

I walked out of the bronze medal game to find a line already forming in Ford Hall to enter the gold medal game. That was unusual based on how the rest of the tournament had gone. I stepped outside for a few minutes to get some sun before heading back into the arena. Ford Hall was packed by the time I went back inside. There was going to be a crowd for the gold medal game! 

While the early parts of the 2022 World Juniors had been disappointing, the gold medal game didn’t disappoint. That was the environment that I had been longing for.

This was a long wait for Edmonton fans, but it was even longer for me. I attended the 2012 tournament that was hosted by Edmonton and Calgary. Edmonton got team Canada for the preliminary round, and Calgary got the medal round. I attended seven games in Edmonton and then the entire medal round in Calgary. I watched the Russians go up 6-1 on Canada in the semifinal, and I watched Canada storm back to make it 6-5. They ultimately fell short. That was a bitterly disappointing loss. I had been waiting for Saturday’s gold medal game since January 3, 2012.

Canada had a two goal lead going into the third period. Things were looking good, but we all knew the Finns wouldn’t go away quietly. Aleksi Heimosalmi beat Dylan Garand with a soft wrister from the point to get Finland within one mid-way through the third period. Topi Niemela found Joakim Kemmel on a back-door pass, and Kemell blasted it past Garand to tie the game a few minutes later.

That set up an absolutely INSANE overtime period! Twenty minutes of three on three overtime to decide a World Junior Championship gold medal game. I thought they were trying to kill me!

Garand gloved a puck after making a save off of a Finland rush, and he played it to McTavish behind the net. McTavish slipped, and Finland had a three on one in front of the Canadian goal. I thought it was over. My hopes of witnessing Canadian gold at Rogers Place had been dashed.

I was sitting behind the Canadian goal. Everyone was on their feet and I couldn’t see the scramble in front of the net. I didn’t hear a goal horn. I didn’t see Finns celebrating and dejected Canadians lying on the ice. The play had been kept alive! “HOW?” I shouted.

I wouldn’t see the replay for another hour or so after the game. It turns out that McTavish had gotten up after falling behind the net and he made a miraculous goal line save! It’s already being called the Golden Save.

Moments later, Seeley forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Logan Stankoven was away. Stankoven beat one Finnish defender and had the other collapse towards him. He spun off or that defender as he was falling and he found Kent Johnson wide open in front of the net. Johnson made a move to his backhand which was initially saved, but he buried the rebound and sent Rogers Place and all of Canada into a frenzy with a golden goal for the ages!

It didn’t matter that the 2021 tournament was played in Edmonton in a bubble with no fans. It didn’t matter that the December version of the tournament was cut short. It didn’t matter that it was pushing 30 degrees outside and the tournament was missing Russia and a lot of top prospects that were there in December. Edmonton fans and I got to witness one of the most unbelievable and dramatic World Junior gold medal games that has ever been contested on our home ice! It was the moment that I had dreamt of since I was a teenager watching the tournament, and it was the moment I had been waiting for since January 3, 2012. It was the moment that Edmonton fans had to wait 1,354 days to see, and it was a moment that nobody could’ve possibly scripted. It was a moment that nobody in attendance will ever forget.

Gord Miller said it best, as he usually does. “A gold medal that was worth the wait.”

It certainly was, Gord.