The 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship delivered two dramatic contrasting results on Monday, as Canada seized revenge for a stunning 2023 upset with a late-game breakout against Denmark, while defending champion United States suffered a third straight defeat at the hands of a red-hot Finnish side.
In Group B action hosted in Fribourg, Switzerland, Canada entered the match with unfinished business against Denmark. Twelve months prior, the heavily favored Canadian squad saw their bid for a 29th world title cut short when Denmark pulled off one of the biggest upsets in tournament history to beat them 2-1 in the quarterfinals. This year’s rematch followed a familiar script for most of the contest: Canada controlled possession and peppered the net with 28 shots, but could not find a way past Denmark rookie goaltender Nicolaj Henriksen, who put on a spectacular performance in his first senior world championship appearance.
That all changed in the opening minutes of the third period, when legendary Canadian forward Sidney Crosby sparked an unprecedented scoring surge that turned a scoreless deadlock into a dominant 5-1 win. Just 28 seconds into the final frame, Porter Martone slotted home the opening goal off a crisp cross-crease pass from Crosby, breaking the seal for the tournament favorites. Three minutes later, Gabriel Vilardi doubled Canada’s lead, and 31 seconds after that, Denton Mateychuk buried a rebound off another Crosby setup to put Canada up 3-0 before the third period was even seven minutes old. Ryan O’Reilly and Parker Wotherspoon closed out the scoring for Canada, each finding the back of the net after Crosby located them unmarked in front of the goal, giving the future Hall of Famer four assists on the night’s five goals. Teenage Canadian captain Macklin Celebrini added two assists of his own, while goaltender Jet Greaves turned aside 15 of 16 Danish shots. Nick Olesen scored Denmark’s only goal late in the contest.
The win marks Canada’s third consecutive victory to open the tournament, following previous wins over Sweden (5-3) and Italy (6-0). Canada is set to return to the ice against Norway on Thursday.
In Group A play in Zurich, meanwhile, defending champion United States continued to struggle at this year’s event, falling 6-2 to Finland, who notched their third straight win to open the tournament. The U.S. came into the match on rocky footing, having dropped their opener to host Switzerland 3-1 before picking up their only win so far against Great Britain 5-1.
Finland got on the board early, when Lenni Hameenaho fired a wrist shot past U.S. goaltender Joseph Woll just over six minutes into the first period, capitalizing on an American turnover. The U.S. responded quickly, with Matt Coronato knocking in a one-timer to equalize just 98 seconds later. From that point on, Finland dominated the scoreboard, ripping off four consecutive goals to pull away. Patrik Puistola and Aatu Raty found the back of the net before the end of the first period, and Hameenaho notched his second of the night on a power play early in the second, followed 31 seconds later by a strike from Saku Maenalanen. The outburst forced the U.S. to pull Woll, who had allowed five goals on just 10 shots, and bring in backup Devin Cooley.
The U.S. got one goal back in the third period from Ryan Leonard, but Anton Lundell closed out the scoring for Finland to seal the 6-2 win. The U.S. will look to get back on track when they face Germany on Wednesday, while other matches on Monday’s slate included host Switzerland facing Germany in Zurich, and Sweden taking on Czechia in Fribourg.