IIHF World Championships: Canada beat Germany in final, Latvia claim bronze
Canada 5 Germany 2
Canada went into Sunday’s World Championship decider as firm favourites but Germany had upset Switzerland in the quarter-finals and then defeated the USA in overtime in Saturday’s semi-final, proving the Canadians would have their work cut out.
And that proved to be exactly the case at a packed Deck Arena in Tampere, Finland, as Germany’s top-scorer John-Jason Peterka put them into a shock early lead. It didn’t take long for Canada to hit back through Blues’ forward Samuel Blais and the teams went Into the first break level.
Daniel Fischbuch gave Germany the lead again in the second period before Coyote’s star Lawson Crouse levelled things once again with a power-play goal before the second interval.
The third and decisive period proved to be all Canada's as Blais scored the go-ahead goal before Tyler Toffoli made it 4-2. Scott Laughton added a late empty-netter as Canada secured their 28th title at the World Championships in style.
USA 3 Latvia 4
Even though it was 'just' a battle for third place, the first period was full of action. Robert Bukarts opened the scoring for Latvia with a power play goal after eight minutes, but Rocco Grimaldi was quick to reply for the USA.
With four minutes left of the first period, Janis Jaks gave the Latvians the lead again, but the Americans pegged them back once more, with Grimaldi scoring his second on the power play.
After a hectic first period, the second came and went quickly, with no goals from either side. But finally, in the third period, the USA took the lead for the first time.
Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato scored seven minutes into the period, but Latvia were determined to not go down without a fight. Coronato's Flames teammate Kristians Rubins scored eight minutes later, which sent the game into overtime.
And just over a minute into overtime, Rubins scored his second to seal a historic result for the Latvians, as they picked up their first-ever medal at the World Championships.
