World Hockey Championships 2015 Final: Russia vs. Canada Results
The 2015 World Hockey Championships belong to North America. Hours after the United States pushed its way to a bronze medal with a dominant win over the Czech Republic, Canada found a way to drape the gold medal over its neck with a 6-1 triumph over Russia.
Six Canadian players scored goals, and goaltender Mike Smith turned in yet another dominating performance. Despite Canada being billed as the favorite, the final score was far more severe than anyone could have expected.
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Cody Eakin, Tyler Ennis, Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin, Claude Giroux and Nathan MacKinnon each scored goals. Giroux, Ennis and Crosby finished the game with two points to lead the way overall.
Considered by most to be the premier hockey country in the world, Canada's championship triumph is its first since 2007. It was Canada's first final since 2009.
"It's been a while since Canada has been in the finals [2009] and we are aware of that," Taylor Hall said coming into the game, per the Associated Press (via CBC). "There are a lot of guys on this team looking for their first world championship."
The country has won 25 titles overall, which is second behind Russia in the overall standings (counting Soviet Union wins). Russia came into Sunday as the defending champion and recent monolith of the event. The Russians have captured four world championships since 2008, while no other country has taken more than one.
While recent success has largely been absent, this Canadian team came through with an absolutely dominant performance. It ran through its three playoff matches by a combined 17-1 score. Canada took down Belarus 9-0 and the Czechs by a 2-0 score before Sunday's final.
Including the group round, Canada outscored its opponents by 51 goals across 10 games and went undefeated. Canadians were littered atop the event's top scorers.
Russia came in red-hot from a goal-scoring perspective. It put together nine goals in wins against Sweden and the United States, including a 4-0 thrashing of the U.S. in their semifinal matchup.
“The Russians, of course, are Russians. They’ve been tremendously skilled and talented,” said Canada coach Todd McLellan, per Carol Schram of the Canadian Press. “They can score. They’ve got a team of players that have played together in the past and they’re dangerous the whole 60 minutes.”
Unfortunately for the Russians, they ran into a two-way Canadian buzz saw. Smith has arguably been the best player of the entire tournament. He shut down a game Czech side in the semis and thwarted Russia every time it attempted to mount an attack. The Arizona Coyotes star finished Sunday with 10 saves and nearly pulled off a third straight shutout.
"He’s been outstanding and we’re lucky to have him back there,” defenseman Tyson Barrie said earlier this week, per Schram.
To be fair, it also helps a goaltender when your superstar scorers come to play. Eakin got things going at the 18:10 mark in the first period, deflecting an Ennis shot past Sergei Bobrovsky for the game's first goal.
Mostly a close matchup for the first 20 minutes, things completely fell apart for the Russian defense in the second period. Ennis atoned for losing his first goal to a deflection less than two minutes into the period, getting an assist from Eakin and Sean Couturier this time around. Crosby and Seguin added their goals within a minute of one another, making it 4-0 before the two teams were even halfway through the game.
The final 32 minutes were little more than elementary. Russia picked up some frustration penalties, Canada continued to pepper the goal with shots and the two sides played out the string with only a few notable moments.
Giroux picked up the game's only power-play goal in the third period, taking an assist from Crosby and Ryan O'Reilly. The youngster MacKinnon made it 6-0 less than a minute later, with David Savard picking up the help.
Evgeni Malkin's garbage-time goal to make it 6-1 was worth highlighting only because it wiped out Smith's shutout streak.
By the final horn, Canada had outshot Russia 37-12, spent less time in the penalty box and dominated nearly every aspect of the game. Given the history between the two countries, Canada's outright strong-arming has to go down as one of the biggest shockers of the entire tournament.
With its full complement of stars in the field, it'll be interesting to see whether this win will spark a rejuvenation of Canadian dominance on the world championship stage.
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