Roni Hirvonen got the attention of every Leafs fan last night at the World Juniors. His literal last minute goal put the Finnish team up 4-3 over Sweden and gave the Finns the big win for a birth in the semi-finals.

Let’s take a look at that goal one more time.

Hirvonen launches Finland to victory over Sweden
Winter Top 25 Under 25: #12-10, Topi Niemela, Roni Hirvonen, and Mikhail Abramov

We’ve been loving Hirvonen all tournament, and even before when we ranked him at #11 in our Top 25 Under 25. It’s great to see him finally get a goal after all the assists and near misses in previous games. Speaking of near misses, Rodion Amirov had one too for the Russians.

The Russians won their game against Germany and will go on to join Canada and Finland in the semi-final matches. This means that all of the Leafs prospects who went to the tournament will continue to the semi-finals. The final spot will go to the USA, despite a late surge by the Slovaks who ultimately lost and were knocked out.

With the quarterfinals complete we now know the schedule for tomorrow (all times eastern)
Canada will play Russia at 6:00 p.m.
Finland will play the USA at 9:30 p.m.
The gold medal game between tomorrow’s winners will be on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, NHL training camps for most teams will start today. The Maple Leafs will report in and probably spend most of the day on their routine health and medical checks and basic fitness testing, so don’t expect any surprises or media time until later in the week.

Other News

There was another Finnish Leafs prospect playing last night who had a great game. Veeti Miettinen now has ten points in ten games played with the St. Cloud State Huskies.

Trade and signing “rumblings” are back for another season.

Alberta approves NHL games, feds waive 14-day quarantine rule for players, staff - CBC Sports
Alberta is the first province to officially say the NHL can play games in its arenas for the upcoming season and why not since half their politicians travelled out of the country last month.

And here’s your Sunday funny courtesy of the KHL.

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