World Junior Hockey Championships: Gold medal match.

Canada and Sweden were playing for the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championships yesterday. Canada had a chance to avenge their 4-3 loss to Sweden in the group phase of the tournament.

After only 1:27 of play, Brad Marchand sent Canada ahead by 1-0 then helped Claude Giroux to score a second goal for Canada before the first period was over. During the second period, Canada managed to protect their 2-0 lead. Canadian goaltender Steve Mason kept Sweden scoreless during the second period.

Then during the third period, the canadiens saw the swedish players attack more systematically, Carlsson finally opened the score for Sweden. Then with less than a minute to play into the third period, Larsson pushed a loose puck into the canadian net to tie up the game at 2-2 and sent the game into an overtime period.

Matthew Halischuk scored the game-winning goal for Canada after 3:36 of play into the overtime period. Halischuk was standing right in front of swedish goaltender and pushed a loose puck behind Enroth, giving Canada a 4th consecutive gold medal.

Congratulations Canada!

The 2008 podium:

Gold Medal: Canada
Silver Medal: Sweden
Bronze Medal: Russia

(Picture: The canadian team, Canadian Press.)