Noah Steen scored in overtime to earn Norway a 3-2 upset win over Canada on Sunday to claim the bronze medal at the world hockey championship.
Steen’s goal came at the 3:32 mark of the extra session and earned Norway its first medal at the world men’s hockey championship.
Robert Thomas scored both goals for Canada. They came in the final 1:16 of regulation time to force overtime.
“It took too long to get to our game today,” said Canadian head coach Misha Donskov. “We got to it in stretches towards the end of the second and in the third period, but it was not a complete 60-minute effort for our group.
“I give [Norway] a lot of credit because they played with a lot of pride and commitment. Our team had a lot of great people, outstanding leadership and world-class hockey players, but unfortunately it was not the way we wanted it to end.”
Norway downs Canada in overtime to claim bronze medal at world championship
Canada was relegated to the bronze medal match after a 4-2 semifinal loss Saturday to Finland.
This marks the third straight year Canada has been unable to win a medal at the world event.
Jet Greaves stopped 21 shots in Sunday’s contest for Canada. He finished the tournament with a .919 save percentage and 1.88 goals-against average.
Canadian captain Macklin Celebrini, who assisted on Thomas’s tying goal, finished as the team’s scoring leader with 14 points (six goals, eight assists). The 19-year-old forward with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks said looking back, he felt Canada had more to give.
“[Norway] played a great game, and they came out hard just like we thought they were going to,” he said. “When you look back on the tournament, I feel like we had a little more to give, and it is unfortunate the way that it ended.
“We were never going to give up, and we were going to try to find a way to get a goal as the game went on. I have to give credit to our group for the way we battled late in the game, but it is tough that we could not get the result we wanted.”
Canada finished the preliminary round atop Group B after wins over Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, Slovakia and Czech Republic. The squad punched its ticket to the semifinals with a 4-0 win over the U.S. before falling to Finland.
Since 1931, Canada has won 28 gold medals at the world championship. It has also earned 16 silver and seven bronze medals.
Finland won the ice hockey world championship for the fifth time on Sunday, beating Switzerland 1-0 in overtime.
The Buffalo Sabres’ Konsta Helenius scored the gold-winning goal 10:42 into overtime. The 20-year-old Helenius netted from the right circle, beating Switzerland goaltender Leonardo Genoni with his team’s 28th shot on goal.
Finland netminder Justus Annunen shut out Switzerland with 22 saves.
Finland also won in 1995, 2011, 2019 and 2022.
It’s the first medal for Finland since its previous title four years ago.
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Switzerland wasted a two-minute, 5-on-3 advantage that started six seconds before the end of the opening period.
The final was a rematch of the two teams from their last group stage game, which the Swiss won 4-2.
That was the only loss for the Finns, who finished second in their preliminary group behind the Swiss. They went on to eliminate the Czechs 4-1 in the quarterfinals and upset tournament favourite Canada 4-2 in the semifinals.
Finland was led by captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed the entirety of the Florida Panthers’ season because of a major knee injury suffered 20 minutes into his first practice of training camp. The tournament was his first action in competitive games since the Panthers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup last June.
Barkov sparked the Finns with three goals and eight assists from 10 games at the worlds.
