Canada retained their IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship title by beating Finland 2-0 in the final on Sunday.
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Speeding up the ice, McDavid played give-and-go with Matt Duchene before cutting to the front of the net and flicking a shot under the crossbar for his first goal of the tournament.
Group B winners Finland, who downed Russian Federation in the semi-finals of both the 2007 and 2011 world championsips, came to Moscow full of confidence, with five of their players among the event’s top 10 scorers.
McDavid’s goal in the first period stood as the victor as Canada successfully defended its world championship title with a 2-0 win over Finland in the tournament final.
Russian Federation and the United States will play for bronze in Sunday’s early match.
Canada outshot Finland 33-16; few of Finland’s were the point-blank variety as Cam Talbot recorded his fourth shutout.
The gold medal was Canada’s 26th ever at this tournament, bringing them one shy of the 27 titles won by the USSR/Russia for the most all-time.
McDavid broke through for his first goal of the tournament at 11:24 of the first period.
“But sport is sport, hockey is hockey, our men played with full commitment; they’ve shown themselves well and I congratulate them heartily”, he added.
The victory sets up a showdown with unbeaten Finland in Sunday’s gold-medal game.
“I think we just relaxed today”, said Panarin, a Calder Trophy finalist. “You get that one [goal] early and make them play from behind, it’s a different game”.
The third period was a nerve breaking stretch seeing both teams looking to score on power plays, but it was Canada’s shot puck to glide peacefully into the net of the goalless net with two seconds alarm before the final siren.
The U.S. will play for a second bronze medal in a row against Russian Federation.
The U.S. and Canada contested the second semifinal late Saturday. “It’s tough to say why, but they deserved to win tonight”.
An alternate captain for Canada, Duchene finished the tournament with 10 points in 10 games.
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The young US team, featuring six college players, missed out on the chance to win bronze for the third time in four years.
