MONTREAL (AP) — Troy Terry scored the lone shootout goal, Tyler Parsons stopped all five shots he faced in the tiebreaker and the United States outlasted Canada 5-4 on Thursday night to win the world junior hockey title.
The game was decided in the five-round shootout after a 20-minute overtime period.
On Wednesday in the semifinals, Terry scored on all three of his shootout attempts to give the United States a 4-3 victory over Russia. He beat the goalie between the legs on all four attempts.
“Before the shootout, I was thinking about trying something different (than shooting between the legs),” Terry said. “As I came down, I decided I just had to try to go five-hole.”
The University of Denver forward and Anaheim draft pick beat Carter Hart in the fourth round of the shootout. Parsons then stopped Anthony Cirelli’s attempt, American Jeremy Bracco missed a chance to end it in the fifth round, and Nicholas Roy mishandled the puck on Canada’s last attempt.
The Americans won their fourth title and first since 2013. They won all seven of their games in the tournament, also beating Canada 3-1 on Saturday in the group finale.
The teams met for the fourth time in the championship game, with the Americans also winning in 2004 and 2010 and Canada in 1997.
Canada won the last of its record 16 titles in 2015.
“I’m proud of what I’ve done in this tournament, but it’s so hard to lose this game,” said Canadian defenseman Thomas Chabot, the tournament MVP. “I put everything I could into representing my country as well as I could and help the team win. I may have got the MVP, but I’m heartbroken. It’s very difficult right now.”
The Americans overcame two two-goal deficits to force overtime.
“It was such an up-and-down game,” Terry said. “We were down two goals twice. I think when we were down 2-0 and came back to tie it we got some confidence because it sucked to go down two goals right away. But, we knew as a team that no matter how we played, we had the confidence to get back into the game.”
Bouyed by the first near-sellout crowd at the more than 21,000-seat Bell Centre, Thomas Chabot and Jeremy Lauzon opened the scoring for Canada in the first period.
Boston University teammates Charlie McAvoy and Kieffer Bellows countered for the U.S. in the second.
Canada took a 4-2 lead in the third on goals by Roy and Mathieu Joseph, but Bellows cut it to one and Boston College’s Colin White tied it with nearly 13 minutes left.
Parsons made 46 saves. He plays for London in Ontario Hockey League.
“It was a great atmosphere in the building,” Parsons said. “It gave me chills. It’s unbelievable to win this for your country.”
Earlier, Russia beat Sweden 2-1 in overtime in the bronze-medal game.