Dylan Guenther scores the 'Golden Goal' as Canada wins back-to-back World Junior titles

The 2023 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship came to a conclusion on Thursday night as Canada and Czechia met in the Gold Medal Game, meeting for the second time in the tournament, after the hosts lost on Boxing Day.

For the first time since 2001, Czechia will be playing for the gold medal at the World Juniors. Meanwhile, Canada is looking to become the first team to win back-to-back gold medals since they did so in 2008 and 2009.

It was the hosts who got the scoring started on the powerplay nearly 13 minutes into the first. Los Angeles Kings defenceman Brandt Clarke had the puck at the point and slid it over to Arizona Coyotes forward Dylan Guenther, who rifled a one-timer, top corner over the blocker side of Tomas Suchanek. 1-0 Canada.

CANADA STRIKES FIRST ⚡️

Dylan Guenther lasers one home on the power-play to give Canada a 1-0 lead.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/F04hUe9Pvn— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 6, 2023

Early on in the second period, Canada extended their lead to 2-0. Captain Shane Wright was deep in Czechia's zone and he roofed the puck, top corner, on his backhand to give Canada a two-goal lead.

CAPTAIN CANADA 🚨

Shane Wright gives Canada a 2-0 lead with an absolute beauty.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/r3klt4Hx84— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 6, 2023

The first ten minutes of the third period were pretty quiet, but as we've seen all tournament, Czechia wasn't going down without a fight. The Czechs scored two goals 54 seconds apart to tie the game up at 2-2.

Buffalo Sabres prospect Jiri Kulich got Czechia's first of the game. He found the loose puck, that came off the far post, behind Thomas Milic and tapped it into the open goal.

Jiri Kulich gives Czechia life in the 3rd period 🚨

🇨🇿 1-2 🇨🇦#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/fFlTrIYCjy— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 6, 2023

Then, as mentioned, 54 seconds later the Czechs tied the game. Panthers prospect Jakub Kos tipped a puck thrown on net, which then goes off of the skate of Canadian defenceman Ethan Del Mastro and past Thomas Milic. 2-2.

THIS GAME IS TIED 🚨

Jakub Kos strikes for 🇨🇿 Czechia 54 seconds after Kulich's goal.#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/49QxCBn5rk— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 6, 2023

For the second straight tournament, the Gold Medal Game headed to a 20-minute overtime period at 3-on-3. Canada defeated Finland in August's Gold Medal Game in overtime with Kent Johnson getting the winner.

Just over six minutes into the extra frame, Canada went in on a 2-on-1 where Montreal Canadiens prospect Joshua Roy fed it across to Dylan Guenther who put it home, to win the game by a score of 3-2. Canada now wins back-to-back Gold Medals and becomes the first nation to win two World Juniors tournaments in a row since they did so in 2008 and 2009.

Not only is it back-to-back Gold Medals for Canada, it's their 20th World Junior title in tournament history.

DYLAN GUENTHER IS THE OVERTIME HERO 🚨

CANADA WINS GOLD 🥇#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/6jbHJ8TwaM— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 6, 2023

Directorate Awards
Best Goalie: Adam Gajan (Slovakia)
Best Defenceman: David Jiricek (Czechia)
Best Forward: Connor Bedard (Canada)

Media Tournament All-Star Team
Goalie: Tomas Suchanek (Czechia)
Defence: David Jiricek (Czechia) - Ludvig Jansson (Sweden)
Forwards: Jiri Kulich (Czechia) - Logan Cooley (USA) - Connor Bedard (Canada)

MVP: Connor Bedard (Canada)

While there are several IIHF tournaments between now and then, the next World Junior is set for Gothenburg (Sweden), beginning on December 26th as usual. Canada will now look to win back-to-back-to-back titles.

Speaking of the 2024 World Juniors, here are two groups for the preliminary round. The groups are made based on the results from the 2023 World Juniors as well as the winner of the Division 1A tournament, Norway.

Group A: Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Latvia
Group B: Czechia, United States, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway

All eyes on 2024 👀

Story: https://t.co/DWGqb6JdNu@iihf_wjc @Trekronorse @HockeyCanada @narodnitym @usahockey @leijonat @HockeySlovakia @SwissIceHockey @deb_teams @lhf_lv @norskishockey #WorldJuniors #hockey #icehockey #ishockey #Gothenburg #Göteborg #Sweden #Sverige pic.twitter.com/Jy5d4Sv7KN— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) January 6, 2023

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