The 2004 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (2004 WJHC) was held between December 26, 2003, and January 5, 2004, in Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, Finland. The United States won their first ever gold medal, after defeating Canada 4–3 in the final.

Venues Helsinki Ice ArenaCapacity: 8,200 Hameenlinna Ice ArenaCapacity: 5,360 – Helsinki – Hämeenlinna

Rosters

Top Division Preliminary round Group A

All times local (EET/UTC+2).

Group B

All times local (EET/UTC+2).

Relegation round Results from any games played during the preliminary round were carried forward to the relegation round.

(all games at Hämeenlinna)

January 2 Sweden 4–0 Ukraine Switzerland 6–2 Austria

January 3 Austria 2–2 Ukraine Sweden 4–3 Switzerland

Playoff round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Fifth place game

Bronze medal game

Final

The victory gave the United States its first WJC gold medal ever, and its first medal since a silver medal in 1997 when it lost 2–0 to Canada in the final.

Scoring leaders PosPlayerCountryGPGAPts 1 Nigel Dawes 6 6 5 11 2 Zach Parise 6 5 6 11 2 Anthony Stewart 6 5 6 11 4 Valtteri Filppula 7 4 5 9 5 Sami Lepistö 7 4 4 8 6 Patrik Bärtschi 6 3 5 8 7 Sergei Anshakov 6 5 2 7 7 Jeff Carter 6 5 2 7 7 Gianni Ehrensperger 6 5 2 7 7 Alexander Ovechkin 6 5 2 7GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalties In Minutes

Goaltending leaders Minimum 40% of team's ice time. RankPlayerCountrySaves 1 Al Montoya 360:00 144 8 1.33 136 94.44 2 2 Joakim Lundström 299:08 105 7 1.40 98 93.33 1 3 Denis Khudyakov 160:00 58 4 1.50 54 93.10 0 4 Jaroslav Halák 360:00 194 14 2.33 180 92.78 2 5 Hannu Toivonen 357:25 137 11 1.85 126 91.97 1

Tournament awards IIHF Directorate Awards Media All-Star Team Goaltender Al Montoya Al Montoya Defencemen Sami Lepistö Dion Phaneuf Sami Lepistö Forwards Zach Parise Valtteri Filppula Jeff Carter Zach Parise

Most Valuable Player Zach Parise

Final standings Team 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Division I The Division I Championships were played on December 14–20, 2003 in Berlin, Germany (Group A) and on December 13–19, 2003 in Briançon, France (Group B).

Group A

Group B

Division II The Division II Championships were played on December 28, 2003 – January 3, 2004 in Sosnowiec, Poland (Group A) and on January 5–11, 2004 in Kaunas and Elektrėnai, Lithuania (Group B).

Group A

Group B

Division III The Division III Championship was played on January 5–11, 2004 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

References