Canada owns hockey.
There is no arguing that. And Thursday night was a clear example of why hockey is our sport.
After trailing for virtually the entire game, Boston Bruins forward, Brad Marchand, scored a short-handed goal with 43.1 seconds on the clock to give Canada a thrilling 2-1 win over Team Europe.
The Canadians won the best-of-three series 2-0 and went undefeated the entire tournament, proving once again hockey in Canada is well and alive.
For a while, however, it looked like the Europeans might just pull off the upset.
Towering Boston Bruins defenseman, Zdeno Chara, got Europe on the board early, beating Price in the top-left at 6:26 of the first period.
The 1-0 lead for Europe signified Canada’s third time trailing in the tournament. With no goals in the second period, the Canadians entered the third period from behind and desperate for a change in momentum.
Mike Babcock, who juggled his lines by switching Ryan Getzlaf and Jonathan Toews, made the first significant move.
The Canadians clearly looked re-energized and were rewarded on the power-play. With Anze Kopitar serving a penalty, Patrice Bergeron was able to tip-in a Brent Burns point shot past Jaroslav Halak, with only 2:54 left in the final period.
Enter Brad Marchand.
The play started with Jonathan Toews doing a masterful job of sucking in the European defenders before he hooked it back to Marchand. He then snapped it past Halak to give the Canadians the 2-1 lead with less than a minute left in regulation.
In the end, Canada would hold on and be crowned the champions, capping off another memorable tournament in recent memory.
With a sloppy defensive effort put forward tonight, Carey Price picked up the slack by stopping 32 of 33 shots he faced.
Throughout the entire tournament, the one steady force for Canada was Sidney Crosby.
“When you get a group like this in Canada a place where it is so fun to play and people are so passionate about it, you just want to make the most of it” Crosby said after the game.
Well Sidney, you made the entire country proud – yet again.