Europe almost topped that Thursday but a late collapse proved costly as Canada came back for a 2-1 victory to sweep the best-of-three final.
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Canada remains unbeaten in the best-on-best format since the preliminary round of the 2010 Olympics.
With the World Cup win, Canada has now won the last three major men’s hockey tournaments featuring predominantly professional players, including the 2010.
Marchand led the six-game tournament with five goals and finished second to only Crosby in points.
Brad Marchand’s goal was stunning in terms of when and how it came, but it was not surprising that he scored it. Marchand has been excellent all tournament and has delivered some big goals already.
With the World Cup finally over, Bergeron, Marchand and Chara are all expected to rejoin the Bruins – who will take part in their third preseason game Friday night against the Detroit Red Wings.
On the morning of the World Cup of Hockey final, the talk wasn’t so much about whether Canada would win. Price was just as good as Halak and kept Europe from adding to the one goal lead they got from Zdeno Chara in the first period.
“There’s a lot of expectations when you play here, we understand that”, Crosby said.
Krueger promised to make it hard for Canada to win the World Cup and his squad delivered, controlling play for long stretches in Game 2 as Canada struggled to get anything going and coughed the puck up under pressure on several occasions.
He’s got points in each of the first two exhibition games and just the fact that he’s cracked the B’s lineup in both games tells you that the coaching staff wants to get a long, good look at the undersized forward.
Brent Burns sent a shot from the right point that Bergeron managed to get a stick on, beating a previously ideal Halak. “It’s not easy to do and for a good chunk of us, a lot of us were there in Russian Federation”.
Pushed to the brink of possibly playing a decisive game, the Canadians picked it up a notch and there simply was nothing the Europeans could do about it. Europe made one more last push, but could not find the back of the net, as Canada celebrated on home ice.
Featuring a mish-mash mosaic of players from eight different countries, Europe shut out the woeful Americans and won twice on overtime heroics along its way to becoming a surprise finalist.
This time, said the players, they not only wanted to win. but make a statement.
Canada averaged 4.4 goals over the first five games of the tournament, giving Price plenty of support. The best one belonged to John Tavares, and Halak was not in position when Tavares rang a shot off the post during a Canada power play early in the second period.
Out of sorts for much of its Game 1 win over Europe, Canada came out sluggish again on Thursday night.
Crosby had a chance to score with 7-plus minutes left, but Halak kicked the shot away with his right skate. At the other end, Jaroslav Halak was near flawless.
“They played their hearts out”, said Team Europe head coach Ralph Krueger. But you need to open eye to big picture and the journey.
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The high-flying players from the North American 23-and-under team will likely be ready to roll when the puck drops for the regular season with a new level of confidence after seeing for first-hand that their speed could help them have success against established stars in the league. “It’s extremely painful to see the final result, but I have nothing but pride with the way the group performed today … we turned this into a hell of a final”.
