Final breakthrough against Finland: Canada wins sensational Ice Hockey World Championship

Sunday, June 6, 2021

Final victory against Finland
Canada wins sensational ice hockey world championship

Canada were eliminated on the last day of the opening round of the Ice Hockey World Cup. Only Schützenhilfe brings the game’s homeland to the knockout rounds, followed by an unexpected victory march. In the final against Finland, the team was crowned without any big stars.

With a team from Anonymous, Canada won an astonishing 27th world title and is again on par with record world champions Russia. Without the big stars, the selection from the ice hockey homeland prevailed in the final of Riga against defending champions Finland after extra time with 3:2 (0:1, 1:0, 1:1, 1:0) and thus Successfully avenged their 1:3 defeat in the final two years earlier.

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 American reached the quarterfinals only with German help. There they defeated the favorite Russian team 2–1 after extra time, and in the semi-finals they also defeated USA (4–2), having previously won seven consecutive times. The Americans consoled themselves with bronze after 6:1 in the short final against the German team.

Mikel Ruhoma (9th) gave the Finns an early lead. But the previous strategy of success in this World Cup did not work. The strong defense of “Team Suomi” around excellent goalkeeper Jussi Olkinuora did not hold a narrow lead. Dusted off Maxime Comtois (25th) after Connor Brown hit the crossbar to equalize. Eleven minutes later, the Canadians celebrated the lead, but Adam Heinrich’s goal was denied after video evidence ran out.

Defender Petteri Lindbom (46th) scored the second goal for the Finns. Seconds earlier, goalkeeper Olkinuora nearly made it 2–1 for Canada for Brandon Pirie when he failed to control the puck. This time also the lead was not enough. Because Henrik (53rd) equalized with Canada’s second powerplay goal and forced extra time. Nick Paul (67th) took this decision.

Canadian Brown took the title of Scorer King with 2 goals and 14 assists. In twelfth place the best was German Mathias Plachta with 4 hits and 4 assists. Moritz Cedar was awarded as the best defender of the World Cup. A future NHL professional from the Detroit Red Wings made it to the All-Star team with Korbinian Holzer. Mangiapane, British Liam Kirk and American Conor Garland as well as Finnish goalkeeper Jussie Olkinuora completed the selection of journalists. In addition to Cedar, the Directorate of the World Federation IIHF awarded American Cal Petersen as best goalkeeper and Slovak Peter Sehlrich as best attacker.