Canada held off an epic United States comeback attempt to win the World Lacrosse Men’s U20 World Championship on Jeju Island, Korea by a 6-5 score. The victory snapped a string of nine straight World Lacrosse junior championships for the USA that dated to 1988. It was the first time anyone other than the U.S. won the event.
“This group stuck together, they were tightknit, they were gritty and they got the job done,” said Canada head coach Gary Gait. “This is the first championship at the U20/U19 for Canadians and we’re just so proud that we could be the first.”
“I’m obviously disappointed,” said United States head coach Shawn Nadelen. “We didn’t accomplish our mission of coming over here and earning gold and winning it to bring back to the USA, but these guys obviously showed a ton of fight and represented the red, white and blue all the way to end.”
Canada had seemingly finished off the low-scoring defensive affair on an empty net goal by Jared Maznik with 4:26 to play, taking a 6-2 lead as the U.S. had pulled goalie Patrick Jameison out of the cage to try and force a turnover.
The U.S. wasn’t done, however, even as it lost the next faceoff. Jameison got the ball back for the U.S. and Brendan Millon threw a backflip pass to Rhett Chambers on the offensive end and Chambers buried the shot to cut the lead to 6-3 with 3:27 left.
USA faceoff specialist Brady Wambach won the ensuing draw going forward and after a Robby Hopper shot just missed, Colin Kurdyla took the ball from the point, drove and dipped inside of his defender and tucked the ball in the upper left corner of the goal to score his second goal of the game, cutting the lead to 6-4 with 2:47 left.
Wambach again won the faceoff going forward, but this time the U.S. offense couldn’t connect with a pair of shots going wide. Canada had a chance to clear the ball and run out the clock with under two minutes to play, but the U.S. ride pressured Canada into a turnover with just over a minute left. Once again, the USA came up empty as Canada goalie Grayson Manning made a save.
On the ensuing clear, Canada heaved the ball down the field for another turnovers, giving the U.S. a chance with 20 seconds to go and the ball at its defensive end. The U.S. quickly moved the ball up the field and Jack Speidell took a shot that sailed wide.
On the restart, Owen Duffy fed Speidell who quickly turned his body and scored his second goal of the game, pulling the USA within a goal at 6-5 with 8.2 seconds remaining.
Wambach won his third straight draw going forward, fed ahead to Duffy who then passed the ball across the box to Kurdyla. Kurdyla got off a quality shot, but Manning came up with his 15th save of the game to give Canada the world title for the first time at this level.
“We hadn’t won one of those, so to get it done and create history was pretty cool,” Manning said.
Visions of 2016 were in the minds of U.S. team supporters as the U.S. mounted its comeback. The U.S. trailed Canada 8-2 in that U19 gold medal game and still trailed by three goals in the fourth quarter. Ryan Conrad scored the game winner in an eventual 13-12 USA victory.
This U.S. squad had that same mindset.
“We believed in each other,” said Kurdyla, a co-captain for the team alongside Shawn Lyght. “We just came up a little short.”
The U.S. defense was as good as advertised throughout the game, but so was Canada’s. A U.S. team that struggled offensively in the early part of the tournament, including in a 7-6 win over Canada during pool play, had seemingly turned the corner with 63 goals in the previous three games. But they struggled to get good looks and Manning, a goalie at the University of Denver, was there when they did.
“Their defense played strong and obviously they were backed by a hot goalie,” Kurdyla said. “We didn’t pull the ball where we wanted it at times. We weren’t really able to get it outside of his frame. We just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities we had.”
It took a Canadian penalty late in the first half to get the U.S. on the board after nearly 30 scoreless minutes. Rowyn Nurry was hit high coming around the crease and drew a penalty. The U.S. offense moved the ball efficiently on the extra man opportunity with Speidell taking an inside feed from Millon and converting with just 13 seconds left in the half to make it 1-1 at the break.
The U.S. started the second half with possession, but couldn’t convert and then had to withstand a two-minute man-down opportunity for Canada. They did that successfully, but momentum went back to Canada when Lucas Littlejohn scored goals just 43 seconds apart midway through the third quarter to give Canada a 3-1 lead.
Canada started the fourth with possession after a late U.S. penalty in the third quarter and Max Frattaroli made them pay with an extra-man goal less than a minute into the final quarter.
Kurdyla scored his first shortly thereafter, but Canada kept its foot on the gas with Sawyer English driving down the right alley and burying a shot with 11:10 to make it 5-2.
Manning then got in a groove with three saves over the next few mintues before Canada’s empty-net goal and the near U.S. comeback. Six of Manning’s 15 saves came in the fourth quarter and he was named the tournament’s MVP.
Littlejohn’s two goals led Canada and David Peterkin had a goal and an assist.
Kurdyla and Speidell each scored twice for the U.S. while Duffy and Millon each had two assists. Anderson Moore played the first half in goal for the U.S. and made four saves and Jameison made four saves in the second half.
In the bronze medal game, Australia outscored the Haudenosaunee Nationals 7-1 in the second half to post a 13-7 victory. Tristan Ghosh, who plays at Yale, had four goals as the Aussies medaled at the championship for the first time since 2003. The Haudenosaunee had earned bronze at each of the previous four World Lacrosse junior men’s championships.
All-World Team
Attack: Max Frattaroli (Canada), Jared Maznik (Canada), Jack Speidell (USA)
Midfield: Reece DiCicco (Canada), Colin Kurdyla (USA), Luke Robinson (Canada)
Defense: Quintan Kilrain (USA), Luke Michalik (Australia), Parker Sorenson (Canada)
Goalie: Grayson Manning (Canada)
MVP: Grayson Manning (Canada)
