From time to time, TheIHLC.com will feature detailed recaps and boxscores of some of the most legendary games in international hockey history, considered to be “IHLC Classics.” Today, in honour of American Independence Day, we feature the long-awaited first American Gold Medal in World Junior Championship history, won on the back of a two-goal Patrick O’Sullivan performance at the 2004 final in Helsinki.

 United States 4-3 Canada 
World Junior Championship Gold Medal Game
Helsingin jäähalli, Helsinki 
Monday, January 5, 2004

With their eleventh World Junior Championship Gold Medal just twenty minutes away, a 3-1 lead destined to end a six-year Gold drought, Team Canada seemed to be free and clear to return home with Gold in tow, helmed by future stars Sidney Crosby, Jeff Carter and Marc-André Fleury.

But a cataclysmic twenty minutes, highlighted by a brutal own-goal given up by Fleury, turned elation into devastation in Helsinki, and allowed the United States to capture their first ever World Championship title, retaining the International Hockey Lineal Championship in the process.
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