It may not have been the start Team Canada was looking for at the IIHF World Championships, but the result had first time GM Roberto Luongo smiling ear to ear in Riga, Latvia. The Canadians managed to overcome an 0-3 start in the tournament to capture gold over Finland on Sunday, earning it’s 3rd world championship since 2015.
The gold medal game wasn’t without its drama however, as the finals required overtime to determine a winner. Nick Paul and the Canadian squad didn’t waste much time in the extra frame scoring 6 minutes into OT to earn Canada it’s 27th world title to cap off a rather improbable run to a championship.
The Ottawa Senators’ dynamic duo of Nick Paul and Connor Brown were the driving force behind much of Canada’s offense throughout the tournament, with Brown finishing with a tournament high 16pts (2 goals, 14 assists) to lead all skaters. To his credit, Connor showed up when it mattered most, assisting on all 3 Canadian goals in the finals.
Even more impressive however was the play of Calgary Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane who only arrived midway through the preliminary round, and was a massive boost to Team Canada’s offense. Mangiapane managed to rack up 11pts (7 goals, 4 assists) in only 7 games en route to capturing Player of the Tournament honours for his efforts. Amongst his 7 markers were game winning goals in Team Canada’s quarterfinal, and semifinal matches.
Canadian head coach Gerard Gallant (who before joining the team in Riga, sat through several interviews and may soon be returning to bench duties with an NHL franchise) had this to say about his team’s performance: “It feels great. Obviously we were in a deep hole early in the tournament, but we kept getting better and better. Tonight was an exceptional game and Finland is a great team…We had to battle hard against them, come from behind and fortunately for us we got the break in overtime, but hats off to Finland, they’re a great defending champion and it was a great game tonight.”
Nick Paul, was a little more forthcoming with his post game quotes “We started off 0-3, not the start we wanted, but we came together as a group. People counted us out, we knew we were going to come together, work hard and take it in the end and we did. We made it closer than we wanted, but it was an unbelievable, hard-fought game and I’m super proud right now.”
Canadian netminder Darcy Kuemper turned aside 29 shots to earn the victory. Kuemper was kept company by his Arizona Coyotes teammate Adin Hill who served as a backup for the Canadian side at the Worlds. Vancouver’s Michael DiPietro was the 3rd goaltender brought along by Luongo and company though he didn’t see any game action.
After a stunning 2-0 loss to the host Latvian side, Team Canada dropped a 5-1 decision to the Americans, and were edged out 3-1 by the Germans to start off 0-3. While the Canadian side was visibly younger than usual, and devoid of many of the veterans of tournaments past (as many NHLers elected to forgo the tournament in favour of rest after a wild COVID filled 2020 which wiped out the 2020 World Championships all together), it was not the first time the Great White North fielded an inexperienced squad at an international event. What would have been a first however, would have been if Canada failed to qualify for at least the quarterfinal round, something that had never happened at a World Championship or Olympic games.
Although the Canadians managed to rattle off 3 consecutive wins to put them in the driver’s seat to advance into the knockout rounds of the tournament, a shootout loss to Finland to wrap up the round robin meant they needed some outside help to advance. Fortunately, the Germans did them a solid by beating Latvia in regulation to allow team Canada to squeak into the top 4. And the rest as they say, is history.
Earlier in the day, the Americans downed Germany 6-1 to capture bronze.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner