OSTERSUND – The United States captured only its third global junior men's title – and first since 1984 – with a 7-5 victory over hosts Sweden on the final day of the 2008 World Junior Curling Championship.

Skip Chris Plys, competing in his third consecutive World Juniors, stole a huge deuce to open the match against Sweden's Oskar Eriksson before snapping a three-ender in the third end for a 5-2 lead. The Americans then blanked two ends and held Sweden to a single in the sixth.

In the seventh, Plys missed a short runback to score a bunch and Sweden stole one to close the gap to 5-4. But a U.S. deuce in the eighth put the score to 7-4 and the countdown was on.

"This is the best feeling ever, I can't really describe it," said Plys.

"Many good teams don't get a chance to come here."

The Americans were the third team to finish atop the standings at 7-2, but were clearly the quietest. All eyes were on Sweden and their young (16-year-old) skip Eriksson, while Canada's William Dion earned first-place honours in the round-robin.

But it was the U.S. which gathered momentum through the playoffs, dispatching Norway in the Page 3 versus 4 playoff game and upsetting Canada in the semifinal.

It was a day of double disappointment for Sweden, as women's skip Cissi Ostlund came out flat against a resurgent Scotland to lose the ladies' final 12-3. It was the fourth consecutive men's silver medal in a row for Sweden, while Swedish junior women have won four silvers this decade, in addition to one gold (in 2000) and two bronze.

Canada's Dion, like his women's counterpart Kaitlyn Lawes, recovered from a crushing loss in the semifinals to win the bronze medal. The Canadians took out Norway's Kristian Rolvsfjord 5-3 by scoring five singles in the match, including a steal of one in the second end. Rolvsfjord was held to just three singles, including a missed double attempt for two in the ninth end.

"That was our game," said Dion. "That's exactly how we did it at provincials, at nationals, all year. if we had done that yesterday, we would have been on the middle sheet today."

"A lot of people told me it's easier here than in Canada, but it's not. This is tougher. We didn't see these teams in Canada.

"It's a super great experience. It's great to be third in the world. It's much better than fourth."

Throughout the week, Curlingkanalen.se (which means "curling maniacs" in Swedish) webstreamed live games via the internet, while the playoff rounds saw Eurosport.se also pick up the Curlingkanalen feed.

Next year's 2009 World Juniors will be hosted at the official 2010 Olympic and Paralympic curling venue in Vancouver, Canada.

FINAL STANDINGS

United States                    10-2 - Gold
Sweden                             8-3 - Silver
Canada                              8-4 - Bronze
Norway                              6-6
Switzerland (Manuel Ruch)   5-5
Germany (Daniel Neuner)     4-5
Denmark (Rasmus Stjerne)    4-5
China (Jialang Zang)            3-6
Scotland (Glen Muirhead)     2-7 - Scotland must qualify for 2009 World Jrs
Czech Republic                  1-8 - Czech Republic must qualify for 2009 World Jrs