Benn & Myers Golden!
r Congratulations Canada!!!
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r Let’s recap: gold, gold, gold, gold and gold.
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r Canada won its fifth straight IIHF World Junior Championship crown on Monday night, beating Sweden 5-1 in an emotion-filled gold medal game before an electrifying record crowd at SBP Arena.
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r P.K. Subban (Toronto, ON/Belleville, OHL) scored in the first minute of the first period and Cody Hodgson (Markham, ON/Brampton, OHL) tallied in the first minute of the third to help Canada tie its own record for consecutive gold medals won, originally set between 1993 and 1997.
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r It was Canada's eighth straight appearance in the championship game and marked the 11th consecutive year the Canadians have won a World Junior medal.
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r "There is nothing like this," said John Tavares (Oakville, ON/Oshawa, OHL). "This is five Canada, five. We wanted to bring it home for you."
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r Angelo Esposito (Montreal, QC/Montreal, QMJHL) also scored and goalie Dustin Tokarski (Watson, SK/Spokane, WHL) was brilliant in goal, making 39 saves. Jordan Eberle (Regina, SK/Regina, WHL), the hero in Canada's dramatic 6-5 overtime win over Russia in the semifinals, added an insurance goal at 18:07 after the Swedes pulled their goalie for an extra skater. Hodgson made it 5-1 with 32.5 seconds left before the final buzzer.
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r Tavares was selected the tournament MVP and top forward, while he and Subban and Hodgson were named to the media all-star team, along with Sweden's Erik Karlsson, Russia's Nikita Filitov and Slovakian goaltender Jaroslav Janus.
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r "Look at the support we have," Tavares said as he looked up into the stands and saw a sea of people dressed in red and white. "Five in a row … you can't say enough about this. There is nothing better than this. Being at home, there is nothing better than this."
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r "It feels unbelievable," said Subban. "We came to Ottawa as one team on one mission and it is an unbelievable feeling right now."
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r Sweden's Mikael Backlund was sent off for roughing just seconds after the opening face-off, and Subban jammed the puck past netminder Jacob Markstrom on the ensuing power play to send the crowd into a frenzy just 38 seconds in.
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r The lead lasted until the early minutes of the second period, when Esposito snapped a backhand past Markstrom for his third goal of the tournament to double the lead.
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r The vaunted Canadian power play, which finished at a remarkable 50% (21-for-42) in the tournament, struck one final time in the opening minute of the third period, as Hodgson snapped a shot past Markstrom from the high slot.
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r The Swedes finally beat Tokarski for a goal midway through the period, bringing back memories of the 2008 gold medal game in the Czech Republic – a game in which the Swedes trailed 2-0 in the third period but rallied to force overtime.
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r But it was not to be in 2009, as Eberle and Hodgson counted empty-net goals in the dying minutes, setting off a raucous celebration among the 20,372 red-and-white-clad fans at SBP Arena.
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r Benn, Myers and Thorburn are expected back in Kelowna on Tuesday, weather permitting. All three Rockets will be in the line-up on Wednesday night at Prospera Place as the Rockets host Team Canada Captain Thomas Hickey and the Seattle Thunderbirds.
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r As for six in a row? The 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship begins on December 26, 2009 in Regina and Saskatoon, SK.
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r Photos Courtesy of Aaron Bell/OHL
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