Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

MONTRÉAL — When Dylan Strome was sent back to the OHL on Nov. 20 by the Arizona Coyotes, Mathew Barzal fired him a text message.

“Need to win gold at World Juniors,” Barzal typed, having been shuttled back to the WHL by the New York Islanders just 11 days earlier.

“It’s been the goal of mine ever since I got sent down,” Barzal said Thursday. “Dylan had the same thought. There’s 22 other guys there all thinking the same thing.”

Barzal and Strome are two of the five returning players on Team Canada who shouldered a disappointing defeat in last year’s quarterfinal in Finland. That loss is absolved now.

But they know years from now, no one will remember their semi-final pummelling of Sweden if Team Canada can’t finish the job against the United States in the gold-medal game at the Bell Centre on Thursday night (7:30pm et/4:30pm pt across the TSN Network, TSN GO and the TSN Radio Network).

“We’re not content,” captain Strome said. “We’re not okay with just having a silver medal. It’s not what this country’s about. It’s not what Canadians are built for. Canadians want to see us win a gold medal and we were born and raised to do that.

“The way we think is to win, as Canadians. We want to be the best country in hockey, and we want to be the country that is singing our national anthem at the end of the game.”

If history is any indicator, Thursday’s gold-medal matchup will be a border battle royal. The three previous gold-medal meetings between Canada and its southern neighbours (1997, 2004, and 2010) have been decided by a total of four goals. The United States has topped Canada for two of its three gold medals, including each of the last two matchups, in Saskatoon and in Helsinki.

“It’s two heavyweights going to slug each other back and forth,” Team USA coach Bob Motzko said Thursday.

It is notoriously tough to beat the same team twice in one tournament, but the United States will have to do that twice to win gold. They beat Russia for the second time in an epic shootout on Wednesday to advance to the gold-medal game. They knocked off Canada, 3-1, on New Year’s Eve in Toronto.

The loss remains the only blemish on Canada’s record (5-1). The Americans were most certainly watching Canada on Wednesday night.

“They brought the heat. They dismantled Sweden,” Motzko said. “We all saw it. Pretty impressive. That’s what you’re going to get this time. We’re going to play our best. The two best teams are playing tonight.”

Motzko said the United States “has the ground attack” Canada showed against Sweden. They proved that in their New Year’s Eve win, outmuscling Canada all over the ice. Neither of the two goaltenders in that clash at the Air Canada Centre will play for gold. Tyler Parsons will oppose Carter Hart, who stole the show against Sweden.

Strome said the Americans taught Canada the price of a win, a lesson they carried over to Sweden. Wednesday’s semi-final was the first time Canada asserted itself physically, which coach Dominique Ducharme called “playing the Canadian way.”

“The confidence grew in that game. [But] it doesn’t make us win tonight,” Ducharme said. “It gives us the chance to play for gold. We want to be even better than we were [Wednesday] night.”

It will be a battle, Ducharme said, but not the time to avenge the loss of defenceman Philippe Myers, who suffered a concussion on a hit by Team USA captain Luke Kunin. Myers has been around the team, telling roommate Thomas Chabot how much he wants to play and wants to win a gold medal, but will not be in the lineup.

“There’s no time for that,” Ducharme said. “We need to be disciplined. We need to be in control, to be intense and hard and physical and everything else. But we need discipline. We’re thinking about doing everything to win.”

Strome and Barzal have been thinking about doing everything to win for a long time. Like most Canadian players, Sidney Crosby’s golden goal in Vancouver in 2010 is Barzal’s best U.S.-Canada hockey memory.

Canada has a similar rare opening tonight, the opportunity of a lifetime to deliver on home soil.

“We’re playing for gold. Our guys want it,” Ducharme said. “You don’t get too many chances like this. When you have one, you have to make the most of it.”