2024 WJLC Day 4 Recap

Canada turned up the heat by letting the defenders push the pace Tuesday night, leading to a stunning 18-8 win over the United States in a rematch of last year's IIJL World Junior Lacrosse Championship gold medal game that assures Canada will play for gold again this year. And they put the US chances of getting back for a rematch of 2023's title contest in serious jeopardy. 

Day 4 Recap

POLAND 18 - AUSTRALIA 6 

The Poles had encountered trouble scoring, putting up only 7 goals through their first two games of the tournament. Ryan Voll matched that total on his own with a spectacular performance against Australia, scoring 7 times and adding an assist. Daniel Gutknecht and Matthew Wagner each had 3 goals and an assist for Poland. 

Australia got yet another standout performance from Orlando Kernaghan, who put up his third hat trick in his last four World Juniors games, going back to last year. The young Australian squad, which includes a handful of 16-year-olds, continued to show resilience and demonstrated that they are learning and improving by leaps and bounds with every game.

CANADA 18 - UNITED STATES 8 

The Canadians had a sour taste in their mouths a year ago after losing to the US to snap their streak of dominating the gold medal at the World Juniors. They built a team to try to get the championship back and it has been firing on all cylinders.

Canada moved to 3-0 with their Tuesday win, and over half of their goals involved the defenders. Weatherby led the way among the transition parade with 2 goals and 2 assists and the defenders as a whole tallied 5 goals and 8 assists, earning points on 10 of Canada's 18 goals. 

Goalie Dibattista also chipped in a pair of assists. He and the defenders did their job in their own zone, as well, limiting the Americans largely to shots that Dibattista was comfortable facing to keep the US in single digits. 

Dumoulin was named the Canadian player of the game after scoring 4 goals. Weisbrod added 2 goals and 3 assists. 

Benjamin Pousak and TJ Carl each had 2 goals and an assist to lead the US in scoring. 

The Americans, who fell to 2-2 with the loss, now have to sit, wait and hope that Poland (1-2) can beat the Scottish Thistles (2-1), which would create a three-way tie for second place and probably let the US get into the gold medal game. 

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head records, which in the case of the three-way tie would see the US, the Scots and Poland all 1-1 amongst each other. 

The second tiebreaker is fewest goals against. Since the Thistles have allowed 41 goals and the US has allowed 43, Poland would only need to score 2 goals in a tie-creating win over the Scots to give the Americans a reprieve. 

Three or more goals by Poland in a win today would give the US the edge in the goals allowed tiebreaker. If Poland somehow beat the Thistles while scoring only 2 goals, that would still put the Americans into the final: they would be tied with the Scots in allowing 43 goals, invoking the third tiebreaker, which is goal differential. The Americans are +15 while the Thistles are -1. 

Poland will enter the game against the Scottish Thistles at -33, so it seems a long shot for them to take out the Thistles, but the possibility exists. 

Day 5 Preview

Poland vs Scotland, 5:00 PM EDT 

Australia vs Canada, 8:00 PM EDT