Knight, U.S. shock Canada for World Junior gold
Spencer Knight may have saved his best performance for last.
With Darien’s Knight delivering a perfect game in the goal, the United States defeated heavily-favored Canada 2-0 to capture the gold medal at the 2021 IIHF World Junior ice hockey championship Tuesday night in Edmonton, Alberta.
Knight, a first-round pick of the Florida Panthers in the 2019 NHL Draft, collected 34 saves and was named the U.S. Player of the Game. He made 15 saves in the third period while nailing down his third shutout of the tournament.
Alex Turcotte gave the U.S. the lead in the first period, and tournament MVP Trevor Zegras netted the second goal during the first minute of the second period.
Canada had outscored its opponents 41-4 while winning its first six games to reach the final, but was unable to break through against Knight.
“No one person can win a game on their own,” Knight told TSN Canada. “Our whole team battled so hard from start to finish. Every time we went into the locker room, we got so much new energy going and I was so proud of the guys. We stuck to our game plan, played hard, (and) played selfless.”
“We played a great Canadian team and we’re very fortunate to have beat them,” U.S. head coach Nate Leaman told USA Hockey. “I’m proud of how this team played together. This will be a memory they have forever.”
The championship gives Knight a storybook ending to his three years at the World Juniors. He was a backup goalie on the 2019 team which lost in the gold medal game to Finland 3-2, and started between the pipes last winter when the Americans were knocked out in the quarterfinals 1-0, again by Finland.
This year, the U.S. won six straight games following a 5-3 loss to Russia in the opening round. Knight
allowed four goals on 12 shots in that contest, but came back to allow just five goals on 137 shots in his next five games.
“I don’t care about anything personal; it’s a team sport,” Knight told TSN Canada. “We didn’t play our best in the first game (but) we battled back after that game. We hit the ground running after that.”
In the three bracket games, Knight allowed five goals, but just two came at even strength. He finished the tournament with a 1.63 goals against average and a 93.96 save percentage.