The two teams met in the final of the 2016 tournament in Moscow on Sunday (May 22) as the Canadians claimed a second straight title with a battling 2-0 win over the Scandinavian outfit. 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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The 33-year-old winger finished the game with three shots on goal and a +1 rating in 15:24 TOI.
Matt Duchene added an empty-net goal with one second left on the clock to lock down the win.
Earlier in the day, Russian Federation defeated the United States 7-2 for the bronze medal as Pavel Datsyuk contributed three assists.
“Canada played according to their considered plan, they had full control on the puck and allowed us to create just very rare chances to score tonight”.
After having lost 4-0 to Finland in the preliminary round, Canada was resolved to reduce its turnovers in the rematch with the Finns.
In a hard-hitting second period, Canada outshot the Finns by a margin of 13-4.
With Russia’s Alex Ovechkin off the ice for interference, Aho scored his second power-play goal off assists from Jarno Koskiranta and Mikko Koivu.
“It would have been a good performance for me if we had won the cup”, said Shipachyov. “Until now… the pressure was serious”.
Sunday’s bronze-medal game was also notable given the U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly investigated the ongoing Russian Olympic sports doping scandal that implicates the Russian Olympic women’s hockey team.
In a powerful and confident display Metallurg Magnitogorsk forward Sergei Mozyakin scored two goals and set up another, while Russian ‘keeper Sergei Bobrovski made 28 saves.
Ellis scored the victor when he carried the puck over the USA blue line and blasted a shot over goalie Keith Kinkaid’s shoulder.
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“This one stings. Obviously, you don’t like to go out on a losing note”, forward Nick Foligno said. “We knew what we had to do; we just didn’t execute”. “It’s better to win a medal than not”.
