Johnson the OT hero as Canada claims gold at world juniors

Eight months after the tournament first started, Canada — finally — has won the 2022 world junior hockey championship.

Kent Johnson’s goal at 3:20 of the first overtime period lifted Canada to a 3-2 victory over Finland in Saturday’s gold-medal game in Edmonton.

It was the second attempt to play the 2022 tournament. The first edition was cancelled after four days in December due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Johnson’s game-winner came just moments after Canadian captain Mason McTavish (Carp, Ont.) made the play of the tournament, knocking a puck out of midair just before it crossed the Canadian goal line to keep the game tied.

Canada’s Mason McTavish (23) stops the puck from going into the net on a shot from Finland during overtime of the world junior hockey championship’s gold-medal game in Edmonton on Aug. 20, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Joshua Roy (Saint-Georges, Que.) opened the scoring for Canada at 11:18 of the first period, batting home the rebound of a McTavish shot.

The Finns didn’t record their first shot of the game until 12:05 had elapsed in the first period, but they carried the play for much of the second half of the frame.

Shots on goal in the opening period ended up 10-9 for Canada, which took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

The Canadians scored on their first shot of the second period, with William Dufour (Quebec City) firing a wrist shot past Finnish goalie Juha Jatkola.

That was the only goal of the middle frame despite five straight Canadian power plays in the period. Canada outshot the Finns 9-4 in the second and led 2-0 entering the third.

But the Canadians’ inability to score on those power plays cost them in the third period, as the Finns rallied to tie the game.

Aleksi Heimosalmi (at 4:09) and Joakim Kemell (10:46) had goals as the Finns stormed back to knot the score and set the stage for overtime.

The Finns thought they had won the game early in the three-on-three OT, but McTavish somehow got the shaft of his stick on the puck and kept it out of the Canadian net.

Shortly thereafter, Canada went the other way and Johnson (Port Moody, B.C.) banged in his own rebound for the game-winner.

Canada won the gold medal for the 19th time in tournament history.