The defender of the title and the favorite to claim another victory since the start of the tournament was the representation of Finland. In the group stage, however, they made a mistake, as they lost to Kazakhstan after the penalty shootout 1:3. they beat Germany 2-1.
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Canada narrowly exits group
The Canadians had a more difficult path to the final, losing three games in a row at the start of the tournament – against Latvia 0:2, USA 1:5 and Germany 1:3. Then they started to play much better, but only at the last moment did they qualify for the knockout stage. In the quarter-finals they beat Russia 2:1 after extra time, and in the semi-finals they beat the United States 4:2.
The Canada-Finland final was a rematch for the 2019 World Cup and the decisive game in Bratislava. The Finns were better then, winning 3:1. Now they also started the match better. In the ninth minute, Mikael Ruohomaa put them in the lead. In the 25th minute, he equalized by exploiting Game mostly Maxime Comtois. In the sixth minute of the third quarter, defender Petteri Lindbohm took the lead for the defenders. Adam Henrique led in overtime.
Nick Paul scored a golden goal there and Canada won the gold medal for the 27th time in its history.
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For Canada, this is the first gold medal since 2016. Then in the final, they beat … the Finns.
