The 2025 IIHF World Championship has come to a conclusion, and two Vancouver Canucks took home the gold.
On Sunday, Conor Garland and Drew O’Connor’s Team USA defeated Switzerland 1-0 in overtime. After 60 minutes of scoreless hockey, Tage Thompson scored two minutes into OT to put a bow on this year’s tournament and give the US their first IIHF World Championship gold medal in 93 years.
Swiss netminder Leonardo Genoni was sharp once again. Coming off back-to-back shutouts, Genoni made a huge stop off of Conor Garland on a penalty shot during the second period. He made 17 saves in that period and kept Switzerland in this one despite the US outshooting them 40-25 when all was said and done.
This matchup was a rematch of an earlier round-robin meeting in which Switzerland blanked the Americans 3-0 — a victory that seemed to propel the Swiss into a string of dominant performances. This time, however, the US was ready to play, and got the job done.
In the Bronze medal game earlier in the day, Marcus Pettersson’s Team Sweden took down future Canuck Nikolaj Ehlers‘ Team Denmark by a final score of 6-2.
It was all Sweden from start to finish in this one, as after falling to the US in the semifinal round, the Swedes took care of business against a Denmark team that got out of the quarterfinal round against all odds with a historic upset over Team Canada. As we wrote about earlier in the week, Sweden defeated Czechia in quarterfinal action to end Czechia’s tournament.
Final tournament statistics for Canucks playersAd Feedback
On the whole, Garland played a key role in the States’ success at this year’s tournament, scoring five goals and adding five assists in the process. For O’Connor, he finishes with one goal, three assists, and a +6 plus-minus rating. Over on Sweden, Marcus Pettersson’s final stat line: Zero goals, four assists, and a +9 rating. Filip Hronek finished the tournament with six assists and a +8 rating.
