Canada going for gold at world junior tournament

Canada will play for gold at the 2022 world junior hockey championship in Edmonton.

The Canadians beat Czechia 5-2 in one of Friday’s semifinals to earn a spot in Saturday’s gold-medal game.

Canada will play Finland in the final. The Finns edged Sweden 1-0 in the other semifinal.

Sweden and Czechia will play for the bronze starting at 2 p.m.

The gold-medal game can be heard live on 980 CJME and 650 CKOM starting at 6 p.m.

In the first semifinal Friday, Canada led 2-0 after the first period thanks to goals from Kent Johnson (Port Moody, B.C.) and Regina Pats star Connor Bedard (North Vancouver, B.C.).

Canada’s Connor Bedard (16) is checked by Czechia’s Jiri Tichacek (4) during second-period action at the IIHF world junior hockey championship in Edmonton on Aug. 19, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Power-play goals from Logan Stankoven (Kamloops) and Mason McTavish (Carp, Ont.) stretched Canada’s lead after two periods to 4-0.

Jan Mysak got the Czechs on the board midway through the third and, less than two minutes later, Michal Gut made it 4-2.

But Joshua Roy (Saint-Georges, Que.) scored less than two minutes after Gut’s goal to complete the scoring and end the Czechs’ bid for a second straight upset. Czechia took out the heavily favoured Americans in one of Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

This is the second attempt to hold the 2022 world junior tournament. The first edition started in December, but was cancelled after just four days due to rising COVID-19 cases among the teams.