Buffalo Sabres prospect Dylan Cozens scored a goal as Team Canada won the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championships, capturing the gold medal with a 4-3 win over Russia on Sunday.
Cozens also had five shots on goal and played 17:24 in the gold medal game. Overall, he recorded two goals and seven assists for nine points over the course of the tournament. That ties him for 7th among skaters for scoring. He was also a plus-6.
Akil Thomas scored the game-winning goal with 3:58 to play. Barrett Hayton and Connor McMichael also scored for Canada. Maxim Sorkin, Grigori Denisenko and Nikita Alexandrov scored for Russia.
Sweden won the bronze medal with a 3-2 win over Finland. Sabres prospect Erik Portillo (goaltender) did not see any playing time during the tournament.
Elsewhere, Matej Pekar appeared in five games for the Czech Republic. He recorded one assist and eight penalty minutes and finished the tournament a minus-1.
Mattias Samuelsson captained Team USA, but the Sabres prospect and his team weren’t even able to make it to the medal round. The defenseman appeared in five games, recorded six penalty minutes and was a plus-3.
Sweden’s Samuel Fagemo led all skaters with 13 points in the tournament, including eight goals and five assists. Canada’s Hayton notched 12 points (6-6), while Nils Hoglander (Sweden) put up 11 points. Canada’s Alexis Lafreniere, despite only playing in five games and missing several to injury, had 10 points. Lafreniere is the projected 1st overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Here are the final standings:
1. Canada (gold)
2. Russia (silver)
3. Sweden (bronze)
4. Finland
5. Switzerland
6. United States
7. Czech Republic
8. Slovakia
9. Germany
10. Kazakhstan