Guenther nets OT winner as Canada beats Czechia to go back-to-back at WJHC

Dylan Guenther scored the golden goal as Canada won the World Junior Hockey Championship for the second year in a row, defeating Czechia 3-2 in overtime in Thursday's gold-medal game.

Canada got its revenge on the Czechs after losing to them 5-2 to open the tournament on Boxing Day.

This is the first time any country has gone back-to-back at the tournament since Canada won five years in a row from 2005 to 2009. Canada has now won the tournament five times in the last nine years and 20 times overall.

Czechia hasn't won the tournament since 2001, but a silver medal is still the nation's best result since that year.

The OT winner marked the second of the game for Guenther, the Arizona Coyotes' 2021 ninth-overall pick. He opened the scoring with a bar-down rocket from the left half wall on the power play.

Captain Shane Wright doubled Canada's lead in the second period, undressing a Czech defender before ripping home a lethal backhand into the top corner.

Canada held on to the 2-0 lead up until the latter half of the third period when Jiri Kulich and Jakub Kos scored 54 seconds apart to even things up for Czechia and send the game to overtime.

The goaltenders were stellar in the contest. Tomas Suchanek made 35 saves for the Czechs despite looking shaken up after Canada's Caedan Baniker ran him over in the second period, while Thomas Milic turned aside 24 shots for Canada. Both netminders are undrafted.

Canada will look to make it a three-peat next year in Sweden.