Finland became ice hockey world champions
Sakari Manninen became the big hero when he scored the 4-3 ‘sudden death’ goal and secured Finland a 4-3 win over Canada in the Ice Hockey World Cup final on Sunday.
The match was to be decided in a three-on-three match for 20 minutes. Canada suffered an ejection and in four-on-three Manninen scored the winning goal after 6.42 minutes of overtime.
After a scoreless and even first period, Dylan Cozens sent defending champions Canada ahead four minutes into the middle frame.
The Finns were able to play 5-on-3 after two quick and questionable Canadian expulsions in the third period. They took advantage of the situation to tie first at 1-1 through Nashville star Mikael Granlund. The same man scored 2-1 in game five against four shortly after.
Joel Armia then tied it 3-1 with just six minutes remaining. Canada then released the goalkeeper and Zach Whitecloud made it 2-3 with two minutes left.
Canada continued without a goalkeeper and put the pressure on. Max Comtois made it 3-3 with 1.24 minutes left in the match so that the final had to be played in “sudden death”.
This is the Finns’ fourth Ice Hockey World Cup title, and the team also became Olympic champions earlier this year. Norway finished in 13th place at the World Cup for the second consecutive year, but had three semi-finalists Finland, the Czech Republic and the United States in their group. (HAVE)
