Andrew Mangiapane scored twice to lead Team Canada to a 4-2 victory against the United States in the IIHF Men's World Championship semi-finals. With the victory, Canada goes to the final, where it will face the winner of today's second semi-final game between Finland and Germany. The championship game is on May 26th at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena.
Canada will be trying to win its first ever gold medal while the United States looks to go home with a medal for the first time since 2002.
The U.S. beat Canada 5-4 in overtime at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver after Ryan Miller prevented Sidney Crosby from becoming only the third player in history to score 100 points in an Olympic tournament.
Crosby has another chance to join Pavel Bure and Mario Lemieux as the only players with more than 100 points during the tournament when Canada faces Sweden in its final group game on Tuesday.
Sweden or Switzerland could end up being Canada's opponent in the quarter-finals depending on how that game goes. If Canada wins, it would play Sweden; if Sweden defeats Switzerland, they would meet Canada in the quarter-finals.
Team Canada is coming off a strong performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi where it finished with a silver medal after losing to Sweden in the final.
Both games took place on the same day, a Sunday. The final between Canada and the United States was deadlocked at 2-2 until Canada scored three goals to win 5-2. It was only the second time in 70 years that the US men's hockey team has lost an Olympic game at home. The other loss came in 1960, when they were beaten by the Soviet Union 4-3.
The women's game was also close, with Germany winning 3-1. This was Germany's first ever gold medal in ice hockey.
Americans stun Canada with a shutout and win gold at the World Juniors in 2021. And on the 12th day, the Hockey Gods bestowed upon us the ideal conclusion to the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship—Canada vs the United States for a gold medal. In what has become an annual event, the two countries squared off today at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario for the gold medal match. The game was close throughout, but at the end of regulation time and with the score tied 1-1, there would be no winner other than the tournament champion. Instead, the Canadians and Americans traded blows for five minutes before time ran out, leaving us with a gold medal game that had to be decided by overtime. After 20 minutes of four-on-four action, we went back into regular play where Ryan Poehling scored the first goal of the game just 2:49 into the second period. Neither team could find the back of the net again until midway through the third when Brady Tkachuk scored the game-winning goal. He did not have an assist, but rather earned it through pure talent as he shot from well beyond the faceoff circle.
The Canadians outshot the Americans 14-9 during the game. Canada's goalie Peyton Jones made several big saves throughout the game, including a couple of point-blank shots from Brady Tkachuk and Ryan Poehling with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Canada wins the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship following a dramatic final victory over Finland. Canada won their 27th championship in the sport on Sunday, defeating Finland, the 2019 champions, in overtime. The Canadians earned their first world title since 2015.
Finland took an early lead through Mikko Rantanen's goal just 1:57 into the first period. But Canada answered with two goals in a span of 5:43 to tie the game. After that, both teams went scoreless until midway through the third period when Canada scored again through Morgan Rielly to take a 2-1 lead. With less than 10 minutes left in regulation time, Finland tied the game up at 2-2 through Teuvo Teräväinen's goal. That set up the overtime period where both countries had chances but could not score past each other's defenses to win the championship.
The Canadians will now head to Tokyo for the 2024 Olympics as gold medalists. They have been reigning world champions since 2015 when they defeated Sweden 4-2 in the final match of the Sochi Games. Before then, they also won in 2002 and 1990.
Canada has never lost a world ice hockey championship. They are undefeated in tournament history after winning all six medals available at the Winter Olympics and all ten available at the World Championships.
Crosby, Sidney Canada's Olympic men's hockey team beat Team USA to win the gold medal in Vancouver on February 28, 2010. Sidney Crosby's overtime goal handed Canada a 3-2 victory over the tough, underdog Americans, and the entire country celebrated. It was Canada's first gold medal in 14 years and its star player's third career golden goal.
Canada's women's hockey team also won its first gold medal at the 2010 Olympics with a 4-3 win over Sweden in the final game of the tournament. The Canadian men's team had already claimed its third consecutive gold medal at these games by defeating the United States 5-4 in the championship game.
Crosby became only the second player after Mario Lemieux to score three goals in one Olympic game when he netted two goals and an assist against America on February 28. Lemieux did it twice: in 1984 during the semifinals vs. Norway and in 1988 during the finals vs. West Germany.
Lemieux is also the only player who has scored three goals in an Olympic game while playing for more than one country. He accomplished this feat four times: once each in 1980 for Canada and France, and in 1992 for Canada and Russia.
In addition to Lemieux, Canada's Wayne Gretzky is the only other player who has scored three goals in an Olympic game.
Canada won gold in a shootout over Finland for the first time since 1961. This was Canada's 20th global ice hockey championship. The United Kingdom returned to Group A for the first time since 1962, but failed to win a single point. Russia finished with the best record (12-0-1) out of all groups, and thus earned the right to challenge Canada for the Olympic gold medal.
Russia defeated Sweden 4-3 in a shoot-out to win the 1994 Winter Olympics. It was the first time that Russia had ever beaten Sweden in an international tournament. The Canadians were defeated by Russia in the final group stage game of the 1998 Nagano Games.
Canada has won the last three world titles going into the 2014 Sochi Games.
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