Overtime counterattack and four goals in 348 seconds: how Canada became the world hockey champion and the USA won bronze

Incredible ending in the final

The fans waited with great interest for the final match of the Ice Hockey World Championship in Latvia between the national teams of Canada and Finland.

Both teams managed to win the sympathy of sports fans during the tournament.

Suomi have become, perhaps, the most stable team of the championship of the planet.

In Riga, they suffered only one defeat - they sensationally lost to Kazakhstan in a shootout.

True, in the playoffs, the reigning champion won tough victories over the Czech Republic (1: 0) and Germany (2: 1) with a minimal lead.

In turn, the Canadians have made an incredible makeover.

They started the tournament simply ugly - with three defeats in a row.

It seemed that the North Americans, for the first time in history, risked not qualifying for the World Cup group.

As a result, only the honesty of the Germans and Latvians helped them to get into the quarterfinals, who did not play in a draw that suits both sides in regulation time.

But then Gerard Galland's charges performed a real miracle.

The team, which was called almost the weakest in the history of Canadian hockey, first knocked out of the fight, perhaps, the main favorite - Russia, and in the derby with the United States took revenge for the defeat at the group stage.

So the team of "unknown hockey players", which miraculously took fourth place in its own octet, reached the final.

As already mentioned, it was the Finns who were the reigning world champions.

Moreover, two years ago in Slovakia, in a decisive confrontation, they won a strong-willed victory over Canada - 3: 1.

Now the paths of the rivals crossed again in the battle for gold, and the "Maple Leaves" again acted as an underdog, which, it seemed, only went into their hands.

Russia, unfortunately, flew out of the tournament ahead of schedule, but in the final the country was represented by three domestic judges (Evgeny Romasko - in charge, Nikita Shalagin and Gleb Lazarev - linear).

Looking ahead, let's say that they managed to attract the attention of the fans.

The Canadians unexpectedly started the match quite actively.

The North Americans did not sit out at their gates, and with the starting siren rushed to seek happiness from strangers.

However, at this moment Russian judges came to the fore.

Already in the fifth minute, Romasko gave a 2 + 10 penalty to striker Justin Danforth for pushing his opponent on board.

The referee did not limit himself to this and then wrote out a rather controversial removal to Nick Paul.

Romasko considered that he played with a high stick against 36-year-old striker Marco Anttila.

This time the Finns punished the opponent for being rude.

After Oliver Kaska's shot from the starboard side, Mikael Ruohomaa found himself right in front of someone else's goal and calmly outplayed Darcy Kemper.

It was the ninth minute of the match.

Such a beginning of the meeting was definitely not part of the plans of the Canadians, and therefore they immediately rushed forward to restore equality in the score.

Suomi responded with their counterattacks.

A double-edged spectacular game went on on the court.

Soon, Brandon Pirri missed a great moment, who missed the target from the slaughter position after the transfer of Cole Perfetti.

The rival, in response, earned another majority and in several episodes was close to consolidating the advantage.

However, at the beginning of the second period, the Europeans have already earned two penalties one after the other.

They even had to be three of them for 12 seconds.

In the end, the Maple Leaves punished them for it.

If after the first throw of Komtua the opponent was saved by the bar, then after the second one Jukka Yalonen's wards had to capitulate.

The striker watched for a rebound from the goalpost and sent the puck into the net.

Further on the court, as in the previous 20-minute, there was a double-edged game with a lot of chances.

In the middle of the segment, the Canadians were again in the minority after the removal of 18-year-old Owen Power, and Kemper only miraculously reflected Kontiola's throw at close range from a penny.

And shortly before the siren for a break, the Russian judges again reminded of themselves.

Adam Henrik, after the save by Juho Olkinuora, sent a shell on target, but the Russian referee team, having watched the replay, canceled the goal due to an offside position.

So the North Americans missed a great moment to come forward.

But the Finns at the start of the final period distinguished themselves by all the rules.

Ruohomaa made a pass to the blue line to Kim Nousiainen, and he to the port side on Petteri Lindboma, and he threw his team forward with a throw to the far corner.

But the Canadians didn't give up.

Soon Ruohomaa got two minutes for the bandwagon, and Gallan's team converted the majority for the second time.

After the transfer of Comtois, Henrik sent the projectile into an empty corner.

As a result, the fate of the confrontation was decided in overtime.

There, the rivals, of course, were afraid to take risks and did not create many dangerous moments.

Nevertheless, in a number of episodes, Kemper and Olkinuore managed to save their teams.

And in the 67th minute in this final, an end was put.

The Finns won the throw-in in the opponent's zone, but Paul took the puck from the opponent and, together with Brown, organized a two-on-one exit.

Nick was not greedy and shared the puck with a partner and immediately received a reverse gear to complete the golden attack.

This is how Maple Leaves became world champions for the 27th time and took revenge from the opponent for the defeat in the final of the world championship two years ago.

And Brown, who gave three assists in the decisive confrontation, became the top scorer of the championship with 16 points (2 + 14).

No fight in the bronze medal match

And in the match for the bronze medals the teams of the USA and Germany met.

The North Americans were initially considered the favorites of the confrontation.

Unlike the rival, who made the playoffs with great difficulty and only at the last moment, they won seven victories in a row after being defeated by Finland in the starting meeting.

Only the Canadians interrupted the successful streak of the Stars and Stripes in the semifinals - 2: 4. 

But Jack Capuano's charges were determined to take away at least some medals from Latvia.

As a result, they simply did not leave the Germans a chance - 6: 1.

With the same score, the United States had previously defeated Slovakia in the quarterfinals. 

Much in this match became clear when Christian Volanin in the opening ran away one on one with Felix Bruckman and opened the scoring. But the rival finally crumbled in the second period. In less than six minutes, the European team managed to concede four goals. Conor Garland and Jack Drury distinguished themselves in equal compositions, after which the opponents began to lose their nerves. The Germans earned two consecutive removals, and the Americans implemented both majorities. Jason Robertson and Trevor Moore were hit by someone else's gate. 

Even the removal of Alexander Khmelevski before the end of the meeting in the middle of the second period did not become a problem for the “Stars and Stripes”. In the final 20 minutes, the opponents exchanged goals. Ryan Donato grieved Bruckman, and Dominic Bittner sweetened the bitterness of a major defeat for the Germans. Thus, the US national team won the world championship in hockey for the 20th time and took bronze for the ninth time. And Garland with 13 points for performance (6 + 7) took the second place in the race of the tournament scorers.