A determined Russian squad handed Team USA its first loss of the tournament when it counted the most.
Alexander Yakovenko's rocket from the point in the second period proved to be the game winner as Russia edged the U.S. 2-1 at Sarnia's RBC Centre to win the gold medal at the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge.
Russia took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on Maxim Bain's goal and led 2-0 after two.
Max Jones finally got one past Russian netminder Maxim Kalyayev on the power play with just 90 seconds left in the game but the Americans could not get the equalizer with the goaltender pulled for an extra attacker.
Kalyayev was named Russia's player of the game stopping 21 of 22 shots.
Jake Oettinger made 14 saves on 16 shots for the U.S.
The loss snapped the defending champion Americans' streak of 12 wins in a row at the U-17 event. They hadn't lost since 2013 when they fell to the Russians 6-4 in the semifinals.
Saturday afternoon at the RBC Centre Sweden claimed the bronze medal with a 3-1 win over Finland.
All three Canadian teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Sting rookie Jordan Kyrou and Canada White finished 5th, Canada Red 6th, Canada Black 7th and Slovakia 8th.
