Oh ‘Canada! Win fifth straight gold

January 6, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Oh Canada! A victorious Canadian WJC gold medal team celebrates posing with the trophy.

Images courtesy of the official IIHF site

Oh ‘Canada indeed! Canada is once again the Kings of hockey reigning supreme with a well earned 5-1 win over Sweden taking their fifth straight gold medal at the WJC in Scotia Bank Place earlier tonight.

Fresh off stunning Russia with some late heroics from Jordan Eberle and John Tavares, they left no doubt who the best team really was by outplaying previously undefeated Sweden duplicating history winning the World Junior Hockey Championships for a fifth consecutive time. Ironically, Canada also turned the remarkable feat from 1993 thru 1997 before going without gold until this improbable run began.

“Winning on home ice was better than overseas,” tournament MVP Tavares expressed following capturing his second consecutive gold while finishing just behind teammate Cody Hodgson (16 Pts) for the scoring title in Ottawa.

“The fans were great, and a lot of our families were here too, which was great. It’s such an honour to win again.“

Facing the same opponent they defeated in last year’s championship, the Canadians started quickly scoring in the opening minute when P.K. Subban stuffed one home on the power play taking advantage of an undisciplined Mikael Backlund penalty.

Despite Sweden holding a 13-12 shots edge, it was all Canada in the first as they used their aggressive forecheck to generate high quality chances on All-Tournament goalie Jacob Markstrom, who maintained composure by keeping the host club from getting more denying the tournament’s best player Tavares three times on one shift.

Despite some big stops, he couldn’t deny Angelo Esposito who took advantage of a Swedish defenseman losing their stick and then went forehand backhand roofing one for his third increasing Canada’s lead to 2-0 4:06 into the second sending better than 20,000 out of their seats. It was a highlight reel goal from the Thrasher property originally tabbed by the Penguins in the 2007 first round before being packaged at last year’s deadline for Marian Hossa.

Trailing by a pair, the Swedes finally warmed to the task beginning to attack better getting behind Canada’s D forcing them into penalty trouble. One sequence included Markstrom drawing the ire of the crowd for flopping to the ice after he was run into by Stefan Della Revere while headed to the bench for an extra attacker. Earlier, he fell and spun around while beating an attacking Esposito to a loose puck.

Markstrom went back at Della Revere earning a rough costing his club a full two-man advantage. It proved costly because his team was pushed back by an aggressive Canadian PK which forced them to the perimeter making busy netminder Dustin Tokarski’s life a little easier. He was outstanding finishing with 39 saves in being selected top Canada star.

Despite four straight Swedish power plays including a brief two-man advantage, they couldn’t capitalize as Tokarski stood tall along with teammates like Eberle, Tavares, Subban and Evander Kane. A sturdy D led by Thomas Hickey and Colten Teubert did an outstanding job playing physical and sacrificing getting in the path of shots.

The inspired play flustered their opponent whose 16 shots never found the back of the net keeping them in a two-goal hole with one period left. It didn’t help much when Backlund lost his cool once more getting an unnecessary interference minor as the buzzer sounded.

Boasting the best power play all tourney long, Canada cashed in needing just 33 seconds before Hodgson wired one off the right bar and in giving them a commanding three-goal lead. Seventeen year-old Canadian blueline teammate Ryan Ellis assisted. He’ll be draft eligible this June.

“We wanted to get some traffic in front of Markstrom and go after rebounds,” Hodgson pointed out. “He’s a great goalie and a lot of us knew him from the U18 championship.”

A couple of crucial stops from Tokarski kept it three with Sweden on a power play. The shutout was finally broken when Sweden’s Joakim Andersson escaped a Tavares check circling the net before firing a wrister past the Canadian goalie cutting it to 3-1 with still 11:30 left.

A Kane hook a few minutes later gave them a chance to draw even closer but Canada didn’t cooperate killing off the penalty. Booing target Victor Hedman was forced into a slashing penalty with 4:36 left earning cheers. The top Swedish D is expected to go high along with Tavares in the upcoming 2009 Entry Draft.

Eventually, Sweden pulled Markstrom for an extra trying to get back in it. However, their prayers weren’t answered as semifinal hero Eberle hit the open net with 1:53 remaining getting mobbed by teammates. Fitting that he’d seal it considering how clutch he was.

Hodgson added another empty netter with Eberle netting an assist at 59:28. When the final seconds wound down, the entire Canadian team mobbed Tokarski celebrating their enormous win before shaking hands with their opponents with a nice postgame ceremony following honoring players from both sides.

Tavares heads All-Tournament List: Tavares was named top forward garnering MVP honors after tying for the tournament lead with Russia’s Nikita Filatov with eight goals while finishing second in scoring with 15 points (8-7-15). Top goalie went to Markstrom (4-1-0, 1.61 GAA, .943 Save Pct, SHO) while best defenseman was given to Sweden’s Erik Karlsson (2-7-9, +6)

The media All-Star Team was as follows:

G-Jaroslav Janus, SVK

D-Erik Karlsson, SWE

D-PK Subban, CAN

F-John Tavares, CAN

F-Cody Hodgson, CAN

F-Nikita Filatov, RUS

2009 WJHC MVP John Tavares

Tournament MVP

John Tavares, CAN