The 2018 Winter Olympics are now officially in the books. In men’s hockey, the Olympic Athletes from Russia took the gold medal with an overtime victory over Germany. Canada won bronze with their win over the Czech Republic.
Canada 6, Czech Republic 4
Andrew Ebbett opened the scoring in the bronze medal game with a power-play goal for Canada less than nine minutes in.
The Czech Republic tied it just 16 seconds later, however, on a goal by Martin Ruzicka. But the goals kept coming, as just 15 seconds after that, Canada regained their lead thanks to Chris Kelly.
The Canadians found themselves up 3-1 by the end of the first period, as former Buffalo Sabres forward Derek Roy added a goal.
After a scoreless second period, each team tallied three goals in the third period en route to Canada’s 6-4 win.
Ebbett made it a 4-1 game early in the period, but Czech’s Jan Kovar made it 4-2 not even a minute later. Kelly scored his second of the game three minutes later; Wojtek Wolski then made it a 6-2 game.
The Czhec Republic added two more goals, both by Roman Cervenka, including a power-play goal with just 2:05 to play. It wasn’t enough to overcome the Canadians’ lead, however, and Canada skated off with bronze.
Kevin Poulin made 30 saves in the win.
Olympic Athletes from Russia 4, Germany 3
Minnesota Wild prospect Kirill Kaprizov scored the gold-medal winning goal 9:40 into overtime to give the Olympic Athletes from Russia the big win.
Slava Voynov opened the scoring for Russia with a last-second goal in the first period. Germany tied it midway through the second period on a goal by former Sabres prospect Felix Schutz.
The score remained locked until more than halfway through the third period, when Nikita Gusev broke the tie. Just ten seconds later, however, Dominik Kahun tied the game once more.
Jonas Muller then scored to give Germany their first lead of the game.
The OAR pulled netminder Vasili Kosheckin after taking a penalty to even things out, then tied the game with just 56 seconds left in regulation.
Just over 9:11 into the overtime, Germany’s Patrick Reimer got called on a high stick, giving OAR the man advantage they needed to secure the win on Kaprizov’s goal.
Former Sabres forward Mikhail Grigorenko won gold, while Christian Ehrhoff won silver. Derek Roy and Marc-Andre Gragnani won bronze with Team Canada.