Finland became ice hockey world champions

Sakari Manninen became the big hero when he scored the 4-3 ‘sudden death’ goal and secured Finland’s 4-3 win over Canada in the Ice Hockey World Cup final on Sunday .

The match was to be decided in three-on-three matches 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 evenly played first period, Dylan Cozens sent defending champions Canada into the lead four minutes into the middle period.

The Finns were cleared to play five-on-three after two quick and questionable Canadian ejections 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 a five-on-four match soon after.

Joel Armia then made it 3-1 with just six minutes left in the game. Canada then released the goalkeeper and Zach Whitecloud made it 2-3 with two minutes remaining.

Canada went on without a goalkeeper and carried on. Max Comtois made it 3-3 with 1.24 minutes left in the match so the final was 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 13th in the World Championship for the second straight year, but had all three semi-finalists Finland, Czech Republic and USA in their group. (HAVE)