Last-minute goal secures World Cup win
TORONTO — Brad Marchand capped a wild comeback with a late short-handed goal, and Canada claimed a second straight World Cup title with a 2-1 victory over Team Europe on Thursday.
Marchand beat Jaroslav Halak with 43 seconds left in regulation, sending the Canadians to a sweep over Europe in the best-of-three final. Marchand’s goal came just over two minutes after Boston Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron tied the game 1-1 on Canada’s fifth power play of the game.
It was the 16th straight beston-best victory for the Canadians, propped up by a stellar 32-save effort from Carey Price.
“Just crazy the way everything worked out,” Canada captain and tournament MVP Sidney Crosby said. “When you get a penalty that late in the game you’re just trying to force overtime and then Marchy comes down and buries one like that. Pretty unbelievable feeling considering how hard we had to work to get our chances here tonight. It wasn’t easy.”
Zdeno Chara managed the lone goal for Europe, which led from the early minutes of the first period until Bergeron finally evened up the score at 1-1 with less than three minutes to go in the final period.
“Everyone wants to beat you when you’re playing for Team Canada. There’s a lot of expectations when you play here, we understand that,” Crosby said.
“To be able to win it is special for a lot of reasons. It’s been a great month.”
Canada was on the verge of being shutout in a best-on-best format for the first time since losing 2-0 to Russia in the quarter-finals of the 2006 Olympics.
Out of sorts for much of their Game 1 win over Europe, Canada came sluggish again on Thursday night.
They didn’t get their first shot on Halak until almost six minutes had passed. Twenty-seven seconds after that, the Europeans took the 1-0 lead when Chara dipped in from the point and beat Price.
It was just the third deficit Canada faced all tournament, and the longest lasting by far. The Canadians trailed for 89 seconds against the U.S. and 72 seconds against Russia.
A group that rolled into the final looked much like it in the series opener, imprecise at times and unable to impose its will on Europe. Canadian defenders mismanaged pucks at the blueline twice on a first-period power play, leading to dangerous shorthanded rushes for the Europeans, both of which were stopped by Price.
The Canadians couldn’t put much pressure on the European defence, which swiftly moved pucks out of its own zone. That meant little to no sustained offensive pressure.
An early power play in the second seemed to give the host country something of a jolt. John Tavares had the best chance, ringing off a shot off the post with Halak exposed. Then, later in the period with the Jonathan Toews unit pressing, Drew Doughty stepped into a shot that was stopped by Halak. A Corey Perry wraparound followed, also blocked the Slovak goaltender.
Perry had six shots and 10 attempts on goal through two periods.
Building off his excellent 33save outing in the opener, Price was sharp at the other end. He kept Canada’s deficit at one goal, making one of his best stops on Thomas Vanek crashing the front of the net.