Canada beats Finland in OT to win gold at worlds

Canada defeated Finland in overtime Sunday to claim gold at the world championship in Latvia.

Nick Paul scored the winning goal in the three-on-three extra frame with Connor Brown - the tournament's leading scorer - providing the assist.

Canada trailed twice during the final, including in the third period, before captain Adam Henrique buried the equalizer with seven minutes to go.

Andrew Mangiapane, who racked up 11 points in seven games after arriving at the tournament late, was named MVP of the event.

The Canadians won their 27th world championship in unconventional fashion. They started the tournament 0-3 and barely qualified for the medal round, but they defeated Russia, the United States, and Finland en route to the title.

The team was led by head coach Gerard Gallant and constructed by first-time general manager Roberto Luongo.

"I'm so proud of those guys, they never quit, and like you said, it was a tough, tough start for us, and things weren't going well at all," Gallant said postgame, per TSN.

He added: "I just think we had a tough start because the team wasn't together. Finally, after their 0-3 start, we got to put the lines together, Mangiapane comes over, so once that happened, things started to click for us, and fortunately for us, we found a way to get into the crossover into the playoffs and then our team played the best hockey the last three games."

The championship is Canada's first since 2016. Finland topped Canada for gold in the most recent event in 2019.