After not winning a medal in the
1998 tournament, Canada lost the gold medal final in 1999 in overtime against
Russia. Then there were two years of winning bronze before losing three
consecutive gold medal games, 2002 and 2003 against Russia and 2004 against the
United States, all three games decided by one goal. So while Canada was the
only team to medal in those six years, the gold that used to come so frequently
was eluding them.
2005: Grand Folks,
North Dakota, USA
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| Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby |
Due to labour strife in the NHL,
Canada would have the fortune of having another dream team with the likes of
Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Ladd up front, with Dion Phaneuf and Shea
Webber leading the defense. Jeff Glass was solid in goal, and add in an
undrafted, seventeen-year-old Sidney Crosby and this team had the makings of
being the best in tournament history.
A perfect 4-0 record in the
preliminary round, with victories against Slovakia (7-3), Sweden (8-1), German
(9-0) and Finland (8-1), gave Canada a bye in the quarter-finals and put them
directly into the semis. There they defeated the Czechs 3-1 and advanced to
face the Russians in the gold medal game.
The Russians had a pretty
impressive team of their own, led by Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. In
fact, Ovechkin was bold enough to predict a Russian victory in the final. After
the first period ended with Canada ahead 2-1, the Canadians scored four in the
second en route to a 6-1 win and ended the longest gold medal drought in the
country’s history.
Canada’s Patrice Bergeron was
the tourney’s leading scorer with 13 points and won the most valuable player
award.
2006: Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada
Canada was not favoured to win
the gold, as only one player returned from the dream team of 2005, and the Americans,
with nine first round draft picks in their line-up, looked like the odds-on
favourite. But for the second straight year, Canada would win every game at the
tournament. Their four wins in the preliminary round were against Finland
(5-1), Switzerland (4-3), Norway (4-0) and the United States (3-2).
Only one Canadian finished in
the top 10 in scoring for the tournament as the goals were spread evenly around
the players. Blake Comeau was the player in the top 10 with only seven points,
but Dustin Boyd, Cam Barker, Steve Downie and Luc Bourdon has six each while
five others registered five. Justin Pogge was the number one goaltender for the
Canadians.
In the semi finals, Canada
played the Czechs and shut them out 4-0. Another shutout followed in the gold medal
game. This time it was 5-0 as Canada beat the Russians for the second year in a
row. The heavily favoured US team didn’t even medal as they were eliminated in
the quarters by the Czechs.
2007: Mora and
Leksand, Sweden
Winning gold was starting to become
routine again for Canada, as they would have little problem capturing it for
the third year in a row. Canada was led by netminder, Carey Price, who would go
on to be named the tournament’s most valuable player. Jonathon Toews would lead
the team in scoring and would get help offensively from Steve Downie, Kris
Letang and Kris Russell.
The preliminary round would
again feature a 4-0 record for Canada. Victories over Sweden (2-0), the US
(6-3), Germany (3-1) and Slovakia (3-0) would put Canada into the semis against
the Americans. Canada beat the US for the second time in the tournament but it
wasn’t easy.
After 60 minutes of regulation
and ten minutes of overtime, the game was still tied at one. In the shootout,
both teams put two of their three attempts into the net to force a sudden death
shootout. Round four saw the shooters from both teams miss. Rounds five and
six saw everyone score. On to round seven, where Canada’s coach, Craig
Hartsburg, chose Toews to shoot for the third time, and he scored to give Canada
the advantage. When Price stopped Peter Mueller’s attempt, Canada was off to
the gold medal game against Russia for the third year in a row.
They defeated the Russians, 4-2,
but the championship game—despite being an exciting final—took a backseat to
the semi-final victory against the US.
2008: Pardubice and
Liberec, Czech Republic
While Canada’s gold-medal streak
continued in 2008, the winning streak came to an end. After two shutouts to
start the tournament, over the Czechs (3-0) and Slovakia (2-0), a 4-3 loss to
Sweden ended the winning streak at twenty games, dating back to the 2005
tournament. Canada’s last loss had been to the United States in the gold medal
game in 2004. However, it was just a minor speed bump in the road to another
championship.
The preliminary round ended with
a 4-1 win over Denmark. In the quarter-finals, Canada beat Finland 4-2, then
took out the US 4-1 in the semis to set up a rematch with Sweden in the gold
medal game and a chance for payback.
Canada scored two goals in the
first period and carried that 2-0 lead into the third, but the Swedes scored
two to tie the game—the tying goal coming in the last minute—and send it to
overtime. No shootout would be required this time as Canada’s Matthew Halischuk
scored 3:36 into the extra frame to give Canada it’s fourth straight medal.
Kyle Turris was Canada’s leading
scorer with eight points.
2009: Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada
Another
year, another undefeated tournament for Canada. Their perfect 6-0 record made
their total record, for the five straight gold medal tourneys, 30 wins and only
one loss. Their four preliminary round wins were against the Czech Republic
(8-1), Kazakhstan (15-0), Germany (5-1) and the United States (7-4).
The only real test of the
tournament was the semi-final against Russia. Trailing 5-4 with time winding
down, Canada’s Jordan Eberle found himself in possession with the puck in front
of the Russian net with only seconds remaining. After some quick stick work,
Eberle tucked the puck behind Russian goalie, Vadim Zhelobnyuk, and into the
net to tie the game with only five seconds remaining. When the ten-minute
overtime settled nothing, the game went into a shootout. Eberle was able to
score the shootout winner as well and Canada was off to the gold medal game
against the Swedes.
Although Sweden out shot Canada
40-31 in the game, Canadian goaltender, Dustin Tokarski, was solid as his team
won 5-1 and they captured their fifth straight gold medal.
The streak ended the following
year when Canada lost in overtime of the gold medal game to the United States
by a score of 6-5. For a while it looked like destiny was on Canada’s side to
win a sixth straight gold, as the team trailed 5-3 late in the third, yet
scored two goals in the final three minutes to tie it up. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t to be.
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