Sammy Blais hit in every World Cup playoff game. In the final, the attacker smelled a loose puck and lifted the winning goal from his knuckle.
TAMPERE. Canada ruined Germany’s dream of winning the title race. The World Cup final was even, but Canada dug enough laps out of its machine to win the championship. The attacker became the hero Sammy Blais, who scored a 3–2 winning goal at the beginning of the final set. Canada eventually won 5–2.
Blais scored two goals in the final. He hit once in the semifinals, as well as in the semifinals. Blais won the Stanley Cup in a St. Louis shirt in 2019, but the haul of six hits in the World Cup is surprisingly tough. In the NHL, the man has not yet reached ten goals in a single season.
This season he started with the New York Rangers, where he did not hit once in 40 games. Then came the move back to St. Louis. No wonder, the goal account opened right away in the first game for the Blues, and during the spring there were a total of nine hits. The good streak continued in the WC tournament.
– We became close and played for each other. That’s when good things happen. I found my confidence in the Blues and it also carried over to the World Cup, Blais commented to .
The defeat was bitter for Germany. The team was very involved in the battle for victory and led on two occasions, but was still unable to win the title race. Five years ago, in the Pyeongchang Olympic arena, it led the Russian Olympic athletes 3–2, but conceded a minute before the end by overpowering the equalizer and lost the final in overtime.
Now John-Jason Peterka gave Germany the lead in the opening set. Blais cleared the goal even before the break.
In the second set Daniel Fischbuch shot Germany again the advantage but Lawson Crouse acknowledged.
At the beginning of the last 20 minutes, Blais followed the loose puck to the end and lifted past the German goalkeeper by Mathias Niederberger. Canada’s captain Tyler Toffoli nailed the next goal from the counterattack and Germany’s dream crumbled. Scott Laughton still hit blanks.
A year ago, Canada lost to Finland in overtime of the World Cup final, but now they are back in the gold standard. The previous championship came in Latvia in 2021.
From the champion team MacKenzie Weegar was chosen as the best defender of the Games. The best striker was Germany’s Peterka. The Latvian goalkeeper became the most valuable player Arturs Silovs. The German team also reached the star field Moritz SeiderCzech striker Dominik Kubalik as well as the USA striker Rocco Grimaldi. Among them, Kubalik won the goal market with eight hits and Grimaldi won the point market with 7+7=14.