Canada defeats Finland to win gold at re-booted world junior hockey championship

Canada has won the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championship, defeating Finland 3-2 in overtime in Saturday’s final in Edmonton.

Kent Johnson scored the game winner 3:20 into the three-on-three overtime to propel Canada to its third gold medal in the last five years.

It’s the 19th time Canada has captured gold in the tournament’s history.

With two assists in the game, Mason McTavish was the tournament’s top scorer, with eight goals and nine assists. He was also named the tournament MVP.

But McTavish’s finest moment was clearing what looked to be a tournament-winning effort from Topi Niemela off the goal line just seconds before Johnson notched the deciding goal.

Joshua Roy opened the scoring for Canada 11:18 into the first period and William Dufour doubled the lead just 49 seconds into the second.

Aleksi Heimosalmi got Finland on the board 4:09 into the third and Joakim Kemell tied it up just over six minutes later.

Earlier on Saturday, Isak Rosen scored the game-winner as Sweden defeated Czechia 3-1 to take the bronze medal.

Sweden finished third in the tournament for the second time in three years after the same result in 2020 in Czechia.

Saturday’s gold medal game marked the conclusion of a tournament that originally began back on Dec. 26, 2021 but was ultimately postponed after just four days due to rising COVID-19 cases among players and officials.

While the tournament is usually well attended and supported anytime it is played in Canada, this re-boot suffered from poor attendance due to high ticket prices and being held in the hot summer month of August. Saturday’s final was expected to draw the biggest crowd of the tournament so far to Rogers Place. Canada averaged 4,400 fans through its first six games while average attendance before Saturday’s medal games was just 1,525 per game.

“We knew August was not the best time and we did not expect the attendance that we do usually,” IIHF president Luc Tardif told reporters in a wide-ranging press conference before Saturday’s final.

The tournament was also played against the backdrop of Hockey Canada’s handling of alleged sexual assault by some members of previous junior men’s teams.

“First, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed this tournament to August,” the organization said in a statement. “And second, there is understandable scrutiny from Canadians of Hockey Canada and the culture of hockey.”

The scandal currently engulfing Hockey Canada is a “national affair,” and once investigations into what happened are complete, the IIHF said it will determine whether the organization will be sanctioned.

Canada is scheduled to host the 2023 world junior championship in Moncton and Halifax in December.