United States wins World Junior bronze with dominant win over Sweden

The U.S. National Junior Team earned the bronze medal with an 8-3 victory against Sweden on Tuesday at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship in Helsinki.

Anders Bjork (Notre Dame), Ryan Donato (Harvard) and Matthew Tkachuk each scored twice and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 35 shots in the win.

“After a tough loss less than 24 hours ago, to come back and finish with a win and the bronze medal is a terrific accomplishment,” said Team USA coach Ron Wilson in a news release. “It was a total team effort and I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”

Christian Dvorak and Brock Boeser (North Dakota) also scored for the U.S.

The U.S. finished the tournament with a 5-0-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record, and has medaled in four of the last seven years. Team USA scored 34 goals in the tournament and allowed just 10.

Bjork was named the U.S. Player of the Game, while forward Auston Matthews, Nedeljkovic and captain Zach Werenski (Michigan) were named Team USA’s three best players of the tournament. Matthews has seven goals in this year’s World Juniors, the most of any player in the tournament.