The Nashville Predators defenseman won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2016 IIHF World Championship, helping to give his country the ultimate prize at the tournament.
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Canada blew a lead before making a comeback in fighting past the United States 4-3 on Saturday to set up an ice hockey world championship final with Finland.
Pulkkinen finished the tournament with no goals, two assists and 12 shots on goal.
The Canadian players also know they will need to avoid the mistakes in the first loss to Finland when the teams meet again in Sunday’s gold medal game.
The supporters were dreaming of a date in the final as the hosts held the lead after 20 minutes, but Finland showed their caliber in the second period by scoring three unanswered goals and taking control of the game.
Finland forward Jussi Jokinen said: “They played one of their best games of the tournament, and we weren’t at our best”.
In Sunday’s final, Canada can become the first team to retain the title since Russian Federation in 2009, while Finland is seeking its first championship for five years. Audience levels peaked at 2.6 million viewers late in the game as Canada closed out the 2-0 victory.
Russian Federation emerged from the preliminary round with a 6-1 record, then defeated Germany 4-1 in the quarterfinals before falling to Finland 3-1 in the semifinals.
Blackhawks forward Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists in Russia’s 7-2 win over the United States to capture the bronze medal.
“I thought today for us it was a good opportunity to be able to compete for a medal”, USA manager John Hynes said. “Today they played better and won deservedly”.
Instead, Canada gave Finland a taste of its own medicine.
Canadian captain Corey Perry became the 27th player to join the esteemed Triple Gold Club, adding a world championship gold medal to his two Olympic golds from 2010 and 2014 and his 2007 Stanley Cup.
“We’ve learned a lot from our first game against them at the championship”.
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“We’ve executed our game plan nearly perfectly today and that made the difference”, Perry said.
