Chaos Breaks Loose During World Junior Finals Leading To Multiple Ejections

The World Junior Championships (WJC) are always a huge event on the hockey calendar. Each country brings its best U20 talent and battles with other nations for supremacy. This year things were a little more personal in the finals between the United States and Sweden.

The two countries had these birth years meet for the U18s a couple of years ago. The victory went to Sweden and ever since a rivalry was born. Heading into the finals this time around American captain Rutger McGroarty admitted things were personal for him and his teammates.

This led to an electric matchup between the two sides with a gold medal on the line.

The game between the two sides was close throughout. The United States played a high flying offensive style while Sweden played more structured and reserved. The third period proved to be the difference where the United States pulled away.

In the final minutes with the game already decided and the United States on their way to a gold medal chaos broke loose. After the USA scored a goal and taunted the Swedish crowd the Swedish players had had enough and decided to go after the Americans. This led to a brawl between star players on both teams.

Several players were ejected on both sides and sent to the locker room for the final seconds. Things continued on over to the post-game festivities as USA's Cutter Gauthier and Sweden's Jonathan Lekkerimaki looked to exchange some more words.

The United States comes out of the tournament with a win and evens the series between these age groups. They will now head off to professional careers and Men's National Team careers to settle their differences.