Sunday, June 6th, 2021
Final victory against Finland
Canada sensationally wins the Ice Hockey World Championship
On the last day of the preliminary round of the Ice Hockey World Cup, Canada was as good as eliminated. Only the Schützenhilfe brings the motherland of sport into the knockout round, followed by an unlikely victory march. In the final against Finland, the team achieved the crowning glory without any big stars.
With a team of the nameless, Canada surprisingly won the 27th world title and is again level with record world champion Russia. Without big stars, the selection from the ice hockey motherland prevailed in the final of Riga against defending champions Finland with 3: 2 (0: 1, 1: 0, 1: 1, 1: 0) after extra time and thus successfully took revenge for them 1: 3 defeat in the final two years ago.
The new world champion almost flew home after the preliminary round. After a historic false start with three bankruptcies, including 1: 3 against Germany, the North Americans only reached the quarter-finals with German help. There they knocked out the favored Russian team 2-1 after extra time, and in the semifinals they also beat the USA (4-2), which had previously been victorious seven times in a row. The Americans consoled themselves after the 6: 1 in the small final against the German team with bronze.
Mikael Ruohomaa (9th) gave the Finns an early lead. But the previous tactics for success at this World Cup did not work. The strong defense of “Team Suomi” around the outstanding goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora did not keep the narrow lead. Maxime Comtois (25th) dusted off after a crossbar hit by Connor Brown to equalize. Eleven minutes later, the Canadians celebrated the lead, but Adam Henrique’s goal was denied after video evidence was offside.
Defender Petteri Lindbohm (46th) scored the second goal for the Finns. Seconds earlier, goalie Olkinuora almost made it possible for Brandon Pirri to make it 2-1 for Canada when he failed to control the puck. This time, too, the lead was not enough. Because Henrique (53rd) equalized with the Canadians’ second power play goal and forced extra time. Nick Paul (67th) made the decision.
The Canadian Brown secured the title of scorer king with 2 goals and 14 assists. The best German was Matthias Plachta with 4 hits and 4 assists in twelfth place. Moritz Seider was honored as the best defender of the World Cup. The future NHL professional of the Detroit Red Wings made it into the All-Star team together with Korbinian Holzer. Mangiapane, the British Liam Kirk and the American Conor Garland in the storm as well as the Finnish goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora completed the selection of journalists. The directorate of the world association IIHF honored the American Cal Peterson as the best goalie and the Slovak Peter Cehlarik as the best attacker.
.