Ranking the 20 WJHC gold-medal games since Halifax last hosted
It's been 20 years since the world juniors were in Halifax. In 2003, Russia stunned Canada with a late push and captured the championship in an instant classic.
With that in mind, we're ranking each gold-medal game at the tournament since. Let's get to the list.
20. 2006: Canada hardly breaks a sweat 🇨🇦
Among Canada's five consecutive gold medals to close out the first decade of the 2000s, 2006 was probably the least memorable. Despite the event being held in British Columbia, the buzz surrounding the host nation wasn't driven by a star-studded roster or a can't-miss prospect. Instead, Canada's success came on the shoulders of goaltender Justin Pogge, who had a .950 save percentage and three shutouts in six games - one of them a 5-0 drubbing of Russia in the finale. Blake Comeau was the only Canadian player to finish top 10 in tournament scoring, ranking eighth, while future NHL stars Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and Nicklas Backstrom lit up the event elsewhere.
19. 2005: Greatest team ever gets its crown 👑
It was Canada versus Russia. It was Sidney Crosby versus Alex Ovechkin. And it wasn't even a contest. Despite the hype surrounding the 2005 finale in Grand Forks between international hockey's oldest rivals, it wound up being a 6-1 cakewalk for the deepest team the tournament has ever seen. Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and several other household names available during the NHL's lockout ran roughshod over the competition, owning a plus-27 goal differential in the round robin before two easy wins in the knockout stage. While the legacy of the team itself will live on, we like nail-biters, and this game was anything but.
18. 2013: USA prevails in Ufa 🦅
The United States iced arguably its deepest roster in 2013, putting together a crop of future NHL stars including tournament MVP John Gibson, Johnny Gaudreau, Vincent Trocheck, J.T. Miller, Seth Jones, and Jacob Trouba. The Stars and Stripes prevailed 3-1 over Sweden in the final, securing their third-ever gold and second in four years. Although USA was loaded with talent, this game lacked signature moments compared to others on this list, and the 10-hour time difference between the Russian city of Ufa and the Eastern timezone made it difficult for fans to enjoy.
17. 2007: The Price is right 💰
One year after Pogge dominated the crease for Canada, future Hall of Famer Carey Price introduced himself to the hockey world with an even more heroic performance between the pipes in Leksand, Sweden. Price had a 1.14 goals-against average and .961 save percentage in six appearances, and he guided Canada to a 4-2 win over Russia to secure a three-peat. Action-wise, the gold-medal matchup paled in comparison to Canada's semifinal triumph over USA, where Jonathan Toews famously scored three times in a shootout while Price shut the door on Patrick Kane to help his country advance.
16. 2009: Canada too much to handle 🔥
Canada was unstoppable in this era, and 2009 marked its last of five consecutive golds. This outfit was built around future No. 1 pick John Tavares with Cody Hodgson, Jordan Eberle, P.K. Subban, and Alex Pietrangelo in key roles. Canada defeated Sweden to capture a championship in its own capital, but the game was a 5-1 rout, and the tournament's indelible moments came well before the final. Tavares put Canada on his back with a memorable hat trick on New Year's Eve against the United States, and Eberle delivered perhaps the event's most famous play when he equalized in the semifinal, scoring against Russia with 5.4 seconds left in regulation.
15. 2021: Knight shuts the door ⚔️
Whenever Canada and the United States meet on the world junior stage - particularly in the medal round - it's an electric affair, and 2021 was no exception. USA took home the gold on the strength of Spencer Knight's 34-save shutout to stymie Canada on home ice. The game was tense but lacked the back-and-forth action world junior spectators are generally accustomed to. Recency bias may be a factor, but this U.S. squad could stand as one of the best the country has ever produced, with a whopping 10 first-round picks suiting up en route to gold.
14. 2018: Steenbergen the unlikely hero 🥇
Editor's Note: This year's tournament will be played in the shadow of Hockey Canada's ongoing issues after it was revealed the governing body for the sport settled a lawsuit with a woman who said several members of the 2018 team sexually assaulted her.
Some may think Tyler Steenbergen's heroics deserve more love, but there's a truly epic list of games to follow. That's not to say 2018's final wasn't special. The seldom-deployed Steenbergen's shining moment was his first goal of the tournament, and he etched his name into Canadian lore with the dramatic tally that sealed the country's 17th gold medal at the tournament.
13. 2003: Ovi's trophy case starts to fill up 🐐
Russia and Canada met in the final for the second year in a row in 2003, and Canada seemed destined for vengeance with its home crowd supporting a strong roster. The hosts were well on their way to ending a five-year championship drought, too, before coughing up a 2-1 lead in the third period with 2003 No. 1 pick Marc-Andre Fleury in goal. Sadly for Flower, this was not his most tragic loss at the tournament. But we'll get to that later. Russia had a formidable squad that year and a 17-year-old Ovechkin stole the show, potting six goals in six games to give the hockey universe a taste of what was to come over the next two decades.
12. 2008: Halischuk makes it four in a row 4️⃣
For a team that featured Brad Marchand, Claude Giroux, Steven Stamkos, and Drew Doughty, it's quite ironic that the unheralded Matt Halischuk delivered 2008's defining moment. The 2007 fourth-round pick, who went on to play a respectable 280 NHL games, banged home a loose puck to clinch Canada's fourth consecutive gold. Canada blew a 2-0 lead in the third period, and Sweden's equalizer came with 38 seconds left in regulation. While Halischuk's heroics were significant, the tally itself wasn't all that pretty, putting the moment behind some other notable golden goals on our list.
11. 2019: Hughes vs. Kakko 💪
Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko dominated draft headlines in 2019, and as fate would have it, the blue-chip prospects met in the gold-medal game months before they were selected with the top two picks of the NHL draft. Neither player had a particularly show-stopping tournament - Hughes registered four assists while Kakko, 17 at the time, managed five points in seven games - but the Finnish winger got the last laugh by virtue of tucking home the winning goal with 1:26 remaining. On top of the high-octane finish, USA and Finland combined for three goals in 2:47 to make it 2-2 after a rather tepid opening 40 minutes.
10. 2014: Ristolainen shines 🇫🇮
Few international hockey matchups top Finland-Sweden, and the bitter rivals clashed for gold in 2014 to close out the tournament in Malmo. After regulation solved nothing, Rasmus Ristolainen stunned the home crowd with an impressive individual effort. This moment may have ranked higher if Ristolainen's countryman hadn't one-upped him a couple years later.
9. 2020: Hayton, Thomas come up clutch 😤
Russia swiped gold from Canada's grasp a few times on our countdown, but Canada exacted some revenge in a game featuring a laundry list of memorable moments, most of them in the third period. Russia appeared well on its way to its first gold in nine years after taking a 3-1 lead early in the final frame, but the game was flipped on its head when a lengthy review upheld a Connor McMichael goal to make it 3-2. Canada gained major momentum after cutting the deficit in half, and captain Barrett Hayton - who was in danger of missing the contest due to a serious shoulder injury - tied it up with a howitzer on the power play. Then Akil Thomas put his country ahead for good with a mad dash to the net with four minutes remaining. As if that wasn't enough breathless action, Canada avoided going down two players in the dying seconds after Aidan Dudas' clearing attempt hit a perfectly placed camera to avoid a puck-over-glass penalty.
8. 2022: McTavish saves the day 😱
The rescheduled 2022 tournament this past summer was definitely different, as fans hardly showed up to the event and few tuned in on TV. That said, the ending was an all-timer. Mason McTavish's last-ditch effort swiped a sure Finland goal off the line, setting up Kent Johnson's winner moments later. Three-on-three overtime in a medal game may be gimmicky to some, but after the sequence that clinched Canada's latest gold, it's hard to argue for any other format.
7. 2012: Zibanejad caps a thriller 🇸🇪
This was one of the most lopsided championship games imaginable, but also one of the most thrilling. Although they outshot Russia 58 to 17, the Swedes struggled to solve Andrei Makarov (who ironically played ahead of Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy that year). The countries were deadlocked at 0-0 before Mika Zibanejad finally solved the puzzle and brought a raucous Canadian crowd to its feet. Sweden has gone on to win three silvers and two bronzes since Zibanejad's solo mission, but shockingly, it hasn't returned to the top of the podium.
6. 2015: McDavid & Co. fend off Russian comeback 😰
Canada and Russia sure know how to play an entertaining game, eh? The Canadians came out hot, galvanizing the Toronto crowd with a goal 23 seconds into the game while facing the pressure of snapping a five-year gold drought. Midway through, the home side led 5-1 thanks to Herculean efforts from Connor McDavid and Max Domi, but Russia refused to give in and scored three times in three minutes to make it 5-4. The following 23 minutes featured nonstop action, but in the end, Zach Fucale outlasted Russia's formidable goaltending duo of Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin.
5. 2004: Fleury's infamous gaffe 🙈
We told you Fleury was on this list again. Many Canadian fans will never forget the future Hall of Famer accidentally banking a dump-in off Patrick O'Sullivan's rear end to lose the gold-medal game for the third year in a row. The absurdity of the goal overshadowed the fact Canada was up 3-1 to start the period, but the lasting image from 2004's tournament is Fleury facedown in his own net after the craziest blunder the event has ever seen.
4. 2011: Canada melts down in Buffalo 😬
Canada crashed and burned in its 2011 gold-medal contest, allowing five unanswered goals in the third period to a Russian squad headlined by Artemi Panarin, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Evgeny Kuznetsov. The shocking collapse unfolded in front of a de-facto home crowd that crossed the American border to watch, and it mitigated an all-time performance from Brayden Schenn, who led the tournament with a whopping 18 points in seven games.
3. 2016: Kapanen sends Finland into frenzy 🥳
Finland has sure had a flair for the dramatic over the past decade. Suomi's most memorable highlight is from 2016, when Kasperi Kapanen secured gold in Helsinki with a stunning wraparound effort in overtime. The goal came after his team had scored three in the third period to take the lead, only for Russia to tie it with six seconds left. The emotion of the Finnish players and crowd exemplifies what makes this tournament great, and it's what gives this goal the edge over Ristolainen's a few years prior. While Kapanen delivered the golden moment, this stacked Finnish team is also memorable for its Jesse Puljujarvi-Sebastian Aho-Patrik Laine top line that finished 1-2-3 in scoring.
2. 2017: USA wins shootout marathon 🏃♂️
As much as we love three-on-three, USA's shootout win over Canada in 2017 was an all-timer. Before the breakaway exhibition, Canada surrendered two separate two-goal leads, including one in the third period. The North American foes then played a full, end-to-end 20-minute overtime, to no avail. Troy Terry was the only player to score in the five-round shootout, 24 hours after scoring three times in a semifinal shootout against Russia. Tournament MVP Thomas Chabot played an unfathomable 43:25 for Canada in the unforgettable contest.
1. 2010: Carlson's OT heroics 🚨
Our top gold-medal game of the past 20 years is yet another Canada-USA classic. The Americans ended Canada's five-year streak in a 6-5 thriller to capture their first gold since O'Sullivan's butt goal in '04, reaching the world junior summit thanks to a wicked overtime blast from future Stanley Cup winner John Carlson. The extra period saw each side exchange grade-A chances, and regulation had been much of the same: It was 3-3 after two periods before two quick goals put USA up 5-3. With under three minutes remaining in the third, Eberle - already revered for his clutch performance a year prior - scored twice in quick succession to tie it up. Both rosters were loaded with eventual NHL talent, adding to the lore of one of the best world junior games we've ever seen.