There have been exactly 104 games that have required extra time over the 49-year history of the World Junior Championship. Here are the most memorable and most important among that list.
SHOOTOUTS
January 4, 2000, CZE vs. RUS
The World Juniors went to a shootout to decide gold for the first time, and it didn’t disappoint for thrills. After 60 minutes of goalless hockey, Evgeni Muratov got the Russians up 1-0 with a goal on Zdenek Smid. But after one miss, the Czechs tied it on a Libor Pivko goal. The next Czech shooter, Milan Kraft, also scored. Russian coach Pyotr Vorobyov then made an historic decision. He pulled goalie Ilya Bryzgalov and inserted backup Alexei Volkov, who stopped Zbynek Irgl. Smid, however, then got the better of Evgeni Fedorov with the final Russia shot, giving the Czechs gold.
January 3, 2007, CAN vs. USA
Tied 1-1 after regulation and then overtime, the North American powers headed to a shootout, where Jonathan Toews took over. He scored one of Canada’s two goals in the three-shooter portion of the shootout, but it was 2-2 at this point and sudden death was required. Toews beat Jeff Frazee twice more, and Carey Price stopped Peter Mueller after Toews’s third goal, giving Canada the semi-finals win. The shootout was tough on both goalies, who allowed a record nine goals on just 14 shots.
January 3, 2009, CAN vs. RUS
Jordan Eberle and John Tavares did it all in this game, which ended 5-5 after regulation thanks to a dramatic goal by Eberle in the dying seconds after Tavares kept the puck in the Russian zone. And in the shootout, these two players scored the only goals. Dustin Tokarski stopped both Russian shooters, giving Canada a 2-0 win in the shootout and a 6-5 win in the semi-finals game.
January 4 & 5, 2017, USA vs. RUS & CAN
Troy Terry was the hero not once but twice, all within 24 hours. In the semi-finals, the Americans and Russians were tied 3-3 when Terry scored the winner in the 7th round of the shootout to book a place in the gold-medal game. Tyler Parsons had stopped Alexander Polunin on the 13th shot. Then, in the gold-medal game against Canada, Terry saved the day after the U.S. rallied from 4-2 down in the third to force overtime. In the shootout for gold, Terry was the only scorer of the ten shots, beating Carter Hart and giving the U.S. gold.
December 31, 2022, SUI vs. SVK
Rodwin Dionicio ended the longest World Juniors shootout in history, scoring on the 20th shot to close out the preliminary round with a 4-3 win over Slovakia. He made a nice move and then slid the puck between the pads of Adam Gajan, making the shootout score 3-2.OVERTIME
January 3, 1998, FIN-RUS (Niklas Hagman)
For the first time since the playoff format was adopted in 1996, the World Junior Championship gold medal was decided by an overtime goal. The hero was Finland’s Niklas Hagman, who corralled a loose puck to the side of Denis Khlopotnov’s goal at 13:41to give the Finns a 2-1 victory. It was their first gold since 1987 when it was awarded to them after the Soviet-Canada brawl.
January 2, 2010, SUI-RUS (Nino Niederreiter)
No Roman Josi and Luca Sbisa. No problem for El Nino! The Swiss national playing in the WHL for the Portland Winterhawks had a game to remember in the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Juniors despite the absence of the other two star players. Facing a heavily-favoured Russian team, the Swiss played a near perfect game and were rewarded when Nino Niederreiter tied the game, 2-2, with only 33 seconds remaining in regulation. Then, midway through overtime, his low shot through traffic beat Igor Bobkov, and the Swiss were off to the semi-finals while the Russians were going home with a 6th-place finish, their worst in a decade.
January 5, 2010, USA-CAN (John Carlson)
The Americans had gold in their sights in regulation, but two late goals from Jordan Eberle stunned the visitors and sent the game to overtime. Four minutes in, Nazem Kadri came in on the U.S. goal and fired a low shot that Jack Campbell kicked out. John Ramage got to the rebound quickly and moved the puck ahead quickly to Carlson, who beat Jake Allen for the golden goal.
January 5, 2012, SWE-RUS (Mika Zibanejad)
The Russians had no business being in overtime of this game. They were thoroughly dominated from start to finish, but goalie Andrei Makarov was brilliant in a game the Swedes held a 58-17 shots advantage. But without any goals through 60 minutes, and gold medals on the line, the teams went to overtime. Coming out of his own end with the puck midway through the fourth period, Nikita Kucherov was checked off the puck by Patrik Nemeth. Zibanejad got to the puck first and flew in on goal, finally beating Makarov with a quick shot to the far post.
January 2, 2023, CAN-SVK (Connor Bedard)
As of 2023, there aren’t many World Junior highlight packages that don’t feature this goal from Bedard. In a quarter-finals game against Slovakia at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, the 3-3 game went to extra time, and Bedard cemented his place in U20 history with a beauty. Getting the puck at the blue line, he first made a nice move to get around Libor Nemec. Then, he faked outside-in to skate past Peter Repcik, and, finally, he outwaited goalie Adam Gajan and slid the puck into the open net to secure the victory in spectacular fashion.