Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/106685
WORLD JUNIORS HONORS MEDIA ALL-STAR TEAM GOALIE John Gibson, USA DEFENSEMEN Jacob Trouba, USA Jake McCabe, USA FORWARDS Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Canada Filip Forsberg, Sweden John Gaudreau, USA DIRECTORATE AWARDS BEST GOALTENDER John Gibson, USA BEST DEFENSEMAN Jacob Trouba, USA John Gibson came up big throughout the tournament, including an incredible save against Canadian star forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. At left, Phil Housley created a winning environment in the U.S. locker room. for everyone to learn their roles, but over the last few games it came together and just got better and better." Housley said his confidence with the team that was born in early August during a training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., came from what he saw from the net out. He had grown close to these players and knew that they had what it took to push through adversity. And in the end his players rewarded his trust by leaving it all on the ice. "The bottom line is you want to keep it simple," he said. "I thought throughout this tournament we played really well as a team." He pointed to goaltender John Gibson as a catalyst for keeping the team calm during the storm. Gibson posted a sparkling 1.36 goals-against average en route to the tournament MVP award and the Directorate Award as the best goaltender. "It's been a team-first attitude, and John's been an extraordinary teammate," Housley said. "He had a calming affect within the locker room and he showed confidence that rubbed off on the rest of the team." Soon after Vince Trocheck's empty net goal iced a 3-1 championship victory, there was an outpouring of emotion on the USA bench, as players, coaches and staff celebrated the third World Juniors gold in USA Hockey history. All that was left was the handing out of the championship hardware. In addition to Gibson's haul, Jacob Trouba was named the tournament's best defenseman, and McCabe and Gaudreau joined both teammates on the Medi All-Star T eam. One player who didn't end up on an allstar team, but was one of the team leaders on the score sheet and in the locker room, was assistant captain Seth Jones. The 2013 NHL Draft eligible defenseman finished fifth on the team in scoring (1-6-7) and was among the first to hoist the championship cup. He praised Housley for keeping the boat from rocking during the early part of the tournament or even when the team went down a goal like it was against Sweden in the gold-medal game. "Any time you get down a goal or two, if the coach believes in the system, it makes you believe in the system and everyone else BEST FORWARD Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Canada believe in the system," said Jones who is expected to be one of the first players drafted this spring. "If we got down or even if we were up he just kept saying 'keep playing USA Hockey.' It's just something you need as a player to have your coach be with you all the time." Housley said the short tournament doesn't provide a coach a lot of time to make massive overhauls, and since he didn't see major problems he wanted to keep the players focused on winning key games, not all of them. "You need to win the right games [at World Juniors]," he said. "If you told us that coming into the tournament we'd need to win one game against Slovakia to reach the medal round, I think we would have taken that situation." In his closing speech to his team in the locker room following the gold-medal victory Housley told them how proud he was and in similar, brief fashion to his speech on the bus wrapped the tournament with one final message. "You played your hearts out and made my job look a whole lot easier," he said as his team whooped and celebrated. N Cameron Eickmeyer is manager of Internet content and development for USAHockey.com USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY. 2013 19