(WGR 550) – Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens scored for Canada in the gold medal game on Sunday against Finland, but it wasn’t enough as the Finns won in overtime, 4-3. It was the third time in a row these two teams have met in the World Championship Final, and Finland has now won twice.
Cozens scored in the second period, giving Canada a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cozens led the tournament overall with seven goals. His 13 points ranked him third in the tournament, and second on Team Canada.
Canada hadn’t taken a penalty all day until the third period when Nicolas Roy of the Vegas Golden Knights and Noah Gregor of the San Jose Sharks took two-consecutive needless penalties. It appeared the Canadians were going to kill them off, but then a phantom penalty was called that completely changed the game.
Cole Sillinger of the Columbus Blue Jackets was called for high sticking, but replay clearly showed that Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars hit himself with his own stick. The play was not reviewable, and Finland was gifted a 36-second two-man advantage. Mikael Granlund of the Nashville Predators scored to tie the game.
On the play, Canada’s goalie Chris Driedger of the Seattle Kraken hurt himself and had to leave the game. That brought in third string goalie Matt Tomkins, who played this past season for Frolunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League.
Tomkins was a seventh-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012 and never played in the NHL. He spent four seasons in the minors with the Indy Fuel and Rockford IceHogs. He played four years of college hockey at Ohio State.
Finland finished that power play with another goal by Granlund to take the lead. Former Sabres, now Montreal Canadiens winger Joel Armia scored off a faceoff and Finland had, what seemed like, a good lead at 3-1.
If you remember back to the quarterfinals, Sweden led Canada 3-0 in the third period and the Canadians stormed back to win in overtime.
Claude Julien pulled Tomkins and Mat Barzal set up Zach Whitecloud from Vegas, and he made it 3-2. Julien pulled the goalie again, and this time it was Max Comtois of the Anaheim Ducks who also took a pass from Barzal, who was behind goal line. All of a sudden, the game was tied again.
During the overtime, Canadian captain Thomas Chabot from the Ottawa Senators got his stick tied up in-between the legs of one of the Finnish players in the neutral zone, who was standing up just fine. When he saw the stick, he then took one of the most obvious dives you’ll ever see.
Both players should’ve been penalized, but only Chabot was, and Sakari Manninen scored on a one-timer to secure gold for Finland. Manninen has spent the last four seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League.
Tomkins gave up three goals on 14 shots in 22:29 of work. Driedger played 44:13, stopping 16 of 17 shots. Driedger was the only effective Canadian goaltender in the World Championship with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage. In four games, Logan Thompson from the Golden Knights had a 3.00 goals-against average and an .881 save percentage.
As for Team USA, they led the bronze medal game, 3-1, midway through the second period. Czechia scored at 12:12 to make it 3-2 after 40 minutes, but the U.S. was just too tired to compete in the third.
Injuries had decimated the defense, and all the Americans could do for the last two or three games was dress four healthy defensemen and use Blackhawks forward Sam Lafferty on defense.
American captain Seth Jones was playing over 30 minutes per-game, and it showed in the third period, where Czechia scored seven goals, six on Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
All that added up to an 8-4 loss and no medals for Team USA.
Sabres winger John Hayden picked up his only point of the Championship on Thomas Bordeleau's (San Jose) goal late in the third period.
With the Rochester Americans getting eliminated from the Calder Cup Playoffs on Wednesday, that means all Sabres players and prospects are now done for the season.
