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PARDUBICE, Czech Republic — The Canadian juniors added another golden chapter to their 27-year success story, but the latest episode was far from the dominating performances of the past three title runs.
For the first time in its history at the world under-20 championship, Canada required an overtime goal from Matt Halischuk to capture their 14th gold medal and fourth in a row.
After the Canadian juniors blew another two-goal lead in the third period to Sweden and were being outplayed early in the extra period, Canadian centre Shawn Matthias bulldozed his way to the net from the corner. After he was stopped, Halischuk knocked a rebound through the pads of Swedish goaltender Jhonas Enroth, three minutes and 36 seconds into overtime for a nail-biting 3-2 win in the gold-medal final on Saturday.
"Shawn did a great job getting the puck to the net," Halischuk said. "I didn't see the puck go in, but I saw the referee point at it in the back of the net. I don't remember much after that, just that I was on the bottom of the pile," when his teammates celebrated in the corner of the Sweden end, not far from where Halischuk and Matthias, both from Mississauga, Ont. combined to score the critical goal.
Canadian goalie Steve Mason holds the world junior championship trophy after backstopping Canada to a 3-2 overtime win over Sweden on Saturday. Mason was named the tournament's top goalie and MVP. (REUTERS/Shaun Best)
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There was relief and jubilation immediately on the bench as the Canadians escaped a second collapse against the talented Swedes. In the round robin last Saturday, Swede overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period to score a 4-3 victory.
It was the only blemish for Canada in the tournament and halted Canada's 20-game win streak at the tournament.
"There was no way we were going to let Sweden beat us," Canadian forward Brad Marchand said. "We weren't going to let our country down."
That certainly was the indication early when Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Marchand and Claude Giroux before the first intermission. The Canadians dominated the second period, but failed to finish on their chances, a problem that beset them all tournament long.
The Swedes were a different team in the final 20 minutes of regulation time, but the Canadians helped them by trying to rely too much on a 1-2-2 trap system that couldn't contain the bigger Swedes. The Canadians also stopped their puck possession game, stopped forechecking and backchecking, stopped working hard along the boards and stopped moving the puck smartly up the ice.
"The Swedes turned their game up a notch that was real hard for us to keep up speed-wise," Canadian coach Craig Hartsburg said. "Once we got on our heels it was hard to stop.
"We were talking during the TV timeouts to make simple plays with the puck, but give the Swedes credit, they did it to us last game and again tonight."
Sweden's Jonathan Carlsson scored on the power play early in the third period and Tomas Larsson managed to tie the contest with only 38 seconds remaining.
"It was heartbreaking," said Canadian defenceman Drew Doughty, who made initial stop on Larsson with goalie Steve Mason out of position. "We were so close to that gold medal. We were all a bit down."
The 20-minute overtime session was played four-on-four.
Canadian goalie Steve Mason, of Oakville, Ont., made three big stops early in the extra period to allow Matthias and Halischuk to work their magic. Ironically, Halischuk and Mason, who was a perfect 5-0 in the tournament, will be new teammates when they return home on Sunday because Mason was traded on Friday to Halishcuk's Kitchener Rangers.
The gold-medal clinching goal set off an emotional celebration that saw Giroux and many of teammates with tears of joy running down their cheeks.
"I wasn't the only one crying," Giroux said.
After the gold-medal and trophy presentation, the 20 Canadian players, including checking specialist Stefan Legein of Oakville, Ont., who left the game in the first period with a separated right shoulder he suffered on the first shift, stood on the blueline arm-in-arm singing O Canada. This is a tradition that started in 1982 when the first team put together by the Hockey Canada national program won gold in Rochester, N.Y. The tiny rink did not have a recording of O Canada to play, so the players sung the national anthem a cappella.
"It's a dream come true, the highlight of my life," Doughty said."We just told each other that it wasn't going to happen again."
After O Canada was played on Saturday, the Canadian players climbed into the stands with the trophy to share it with thousands of Canadian fans among the crowd of 7,480 at the Pardubice Arena.
"The fans are part of our success," Doughty said. "We have the greatest fans in the world.
"Our fans had just as much right to touch the cup as we did."
This was the seventh consecutive world junior final that Canada had advanced to and 10th medal in a row. In 27 years of the national team program, Canada has won 14 gold medals, five silvers and three bronze.
The Swedes, who have not won a world junior title since 1981, outshot Canada 28-21, 17-4 in the final 23-plus minutes.
Notes: Mason was named tournament MVP and the top goalie … Doughty was named the tourney's top defenceman … Russia's Viktor Tikhonov was the top forward … His team won the bronze medal earlier in the day with a 4-2 victory over the United States thanks to a two-goal effort from Nikata Filatov, considered a top-five prospect for the 2008 NHL entry draft … The U.S. was outscored 8-3 in the medal round after winning their four round-robin games by a combined score of 17-8.
