Junior hockey is back — and hoping for a normal season

The 2022 iihf world juniors scores gold medal match between the United States and Canada takes place on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 (1/5/21) at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Arthur Kaliyev scored with 1:16 remaining and the United States advanced to the championship game of the world juniors, beating Finland 4-3 Monday night.
Alex Turcotte, John Farinacci and Matthew Boldy also scored for the U.S., which won gold four previous times including their last one in 2017.
Spencer Knight, one of eight returning players for a U.S., team that finished sixth last year following a quarterfinal loss against Finland, stopped 33 shots.
Kasper Simontaival had two goals and Roni Hirvonen also scored for Finland. Kari Piiroinen made 21 saves.
The United States will face Canada, which beat Russia 5-0 earlier Monday, in the gold medal game on Tuesday. Finland faces Russia for the bronze.
Turcotte held off a Finnish defender to swipe home a bouncing puck from the top of the crease to open the scoring at 12:39 of the first period.
Finland responded quickly on a power play, with Simontaival finishing off a one-touch pass from Kasper Puutio on a set play at 14:06.
Knight stopped 18-of-19 shots through 40 minutes, and was rewarded by his teammates when the U.S. struck twice in a 1:07 span of the second period to take a 3-1 lead into the third.
Jackson LaCombe caught Finland making a change and sprung Farinacci on a breakaway with a slick pass up the middle from his own zone, with the American forward snapping the puck past Piiroinen at 15:53 of the second.
Then while on a man advantage, Boldy tipped in a perfect snap pass from Trevor Zegras at the side of the net with three minutes to go in the period. https://worldjuniorswatch.com/
Zegras’ assist gives him 16 points in six games and ties him with Jeremy Roenick (1989) for the second-highest single tournament point total in American history. Doug Weight set the record with 19 points in 1991. 

Junior hockey is hoping to return to normalcy starting Thursday night, when the QMJHL drops the puck on what it expects to be a full 68-game season for each team. The WHL will try to do the same starting Friday night, though there will be no interconference play this season. Also, teams in the B.C. and U.S. divisions will be limited to intradivisonal play for the first month as bus travel is still not allowed across the Canada-U.S. border. It's a similar deal in the OHL, which opens its own 68-game season Oct. 7. The three U.S.-based teams will only face each other until at least the end of October, and everyone else will mostly play within their own conference. Each league wraps up its regular season in the first week of April and is expecting a full playoff tournament to follow. The Memorial Cup is scheduled to begin June 3 in Saint John.
Will it all play out as planned? Who knows. But the WHL, OHL and QMJHL gave themselves a better chance by making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for players, coaches, staff and other team personnel. Each league is also aiming to return to full-capacity crowds at some point, but that'll depend on the myriad health departments and governments whose jurisdictions they play in. The OHL has teams in Ontario, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The WHL spans B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Oregon and Washington. The QMJHL doesn't cross the border, but it's in four different provinces: Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. A decision to lock down again in any of these places could impact the entire league.
If things go smoothly enough, we should finally get a good look at super prospect Shane Wright. The potential No. 1 pick in the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship draft plays for the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs, whose last meaningful game was nearly 19 months ago. Wright was only 15 at the start of the 2019-20 season, but he put up big numbers: 39 goals in 58 games and, as Sportsnet's Mike Shulman points out in this story, more points per game than Connor McDavid posted as an OHL rookie at the same age. Wright also dominated the under-18 world championships last season, scoring nine goals in five games to lead Canada to gold. Wright was cut from the Canadian world-junior team last year as a 16-year-old, but he should be one of the stars of the upcoming tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta.
Another guy to watch is Connor Bedard of the WHL's Regina Pats. He matched Wright with 14 points at the U-18 worlds and racked up 28 points (including 12 goals) in 15 games for Regina last season. The 16-year-old isn't eligible for the NHL draft until 2023.