Waterloo, Sudbury reach Junior Club World Cup final

Vince Hinostroza sent the game to overtime when he scored with 1.7 seconds remaining in the third period, and he then scored twice in the shootout to lead the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League (USHL) to a 5-4 victory over Sweden junior team Linkoping on Saturday in Omsk, Russia, advancing to the 2012 Junior Club World Cup championship game.

The Black Hawks will face the Sudbury Wolves (Canada), a 5-2 winner over Dynamo Shinnik (Belarus) in the other semifinal, on Sunday for the tournament championship.

Waterloo carried a 3-0 lead into the third period on the strength of goals by Jake Horton, Justin Kloos and Kyle Schmidt, and a shutout effort by Eamon McAdam, who stopped the first 10 shots he faced.

Linkoping stormed back, however, as Joakim Broberg's deflection goal 13 seconds into the third sparked a four-goal rally to give them the lead.

"It was kind of nail-biting there at the end," Hinostroza said. "I kind of would have liked it more if we'd won without giving up those four goals. Got kind of nervous there. But it was a great finish, the team came out and battled, so it was a great win for us."

Hinostroza scored from the side of the net in the final seconds to send the game to a 10-minute, 4-on-4 overtime that failed to produce a winner. In the shootout, Hinostroza scored in the second round to answer a goal by Jesper Pettersson of Linkoping.

After each team scored in the third round and the shootout remained tied, tournament rules permitted each team to use any of its first three shooters again. Hinostroza followed with his second shootout goal for Waterloo, and Pettersson hit the side of the net on Linkoping's final opportunity.

"[Hinostroza] is usually our first or second shooter. ... It was certainly to our benefit today to be able to use him again," Waterloo coach P.K. O'Handley said.

The Sudbury trio of Michael Kantor, Joshua Leivo and Nathan Pancel combined for eight points, according to JuniorHockey.com. Kantor had two goals and an assist, Leivo scored an empty-net goal with two assists, and Pancel had two assists.

Kantor scored back-to-back goals in the first period to give Sudbury a 3-1 lead.

"The boys really competed hard in this one," Sudbury coach Trent Cull said, according to the team's website. "I thought we really held our ground when they turned it on. They have an older team with lots of skilled forwards and I thought our team responded well and played a good smart team game."

Leivo, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, leads the tournament in scoring with 10 points (five goals, five assists) in five games.

Wolves goalie John Chartrand made 45 saves.

"It is great to get the win and advance to the gold-medal game but we will have our work cut out for us against a very good Waterloo team in the final," Cull said.