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World Junior Championships 2016: Americans win bronze

The United States outplayed Sweden in both of the countries’ meetings at the 2016 World Junior Championships. It’s just that the Americans only picked up a win in one of them.

The timing couldn’t be much better as the USA beat Sweden 8-3 to take home the bronze medal, a fine showing by the Americans in the annual tournament. Three Americans scored a pair of goals and a pair of players recorded three points on the day.

Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and finished with three points, Nick Schmatz’s three assists gave me a trio of points, Anders Bjork scored twice as did Ryan Donato. Auston Matthews was held scoreless and took two shots on goal.

USA led 6-2 after two periods with the shots even at 23. From there, the Swedes put on a push that ended with Sweden outshooting the United States 38-29. So while Sweden shutout the United States in the team’s first meeting, the Swedes received only a .724 save percentage on Tuesday while the United States picked up a save percentage of .921.

All in all, the United States ought to be happy with its play in this tournament after going without a medal in 2015. While no Sharks medaled in 2016, it’s at least nice that Switzerland will be hanging around for another year.

The 2017 tournament will take place in Toronto and Montreal. The 2018 tournament will come to Buffalo.

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