OT: Adam Fantilli / Canada win IIHF Gold Medal
Adam Fantilli and team Canada win the IIHF World Championship Gold Medal in Tampere, Finland. Fantilli also won gold at the World Juniors earlier this year.
I am currently in Finland and was at the game. Latvia won a stunning bronze medal by defeating team USA in overtime. The Latvian President was in attendance because it was such a big deal. Parliament has declared today a national holiday in Latvia.
Congrats to Fantilli but overall another disappointing finish for the American team who has yet to have a top 2 finish in this annual tournament since 1950. USA won their first 8 games and drew Germany in the semifinals (who they had already beaten) but lost despite leading 2-0 less than 5 minutes in and leading 3-2 with under 90 seconds to play. USA also blew a lead with under 6:00 to go against Latvia. USA has now lost all 12 semifinal games they have played since this tournament switched to this format.
This is always such a forgettable tournament, if I’m honest. Many of the best players are still playing in the NHL playoffs and/or don’t bother to go (even if their playoff run ends in time). If anything what this particular tournament represents is having a deep national bench of talent to draw from, coupled with a “want to.” Neither of which USA Hockey has (particularly for this tournament). Thus… forgettable.
Yeah, that's certainly fair. This is the second year in a row I've attended and I plan on making this an annual tradition.
Canada also doesn't send their top players but they seem to have no problem winning it. Granted their talent pool is much, much deeper than ours.
It's still crazy to me we haven't won this tournament since 1933. Realistically there's 6 teams with a shot at winning it* (Canada, Finland, Sweden, Czechia, USA, and Russia - who isn't currently eligible) so the fact we haven't randomly won one is mind blowing. Yeah, we don't have our best players but pretty much our entire roster is either NHL talent or close whereas teams like Latvia and Germany certainly can't say the same.
Maybe next year in Czechia will be our year.
*Yes, I realize Slovakia won it once.
This is certainly not a tournament that should be mentioned in the same sentence as FIFA and FIBA. FIBA has managed to enhance the profile of FIBA world cup recently. I don't know why the hockey world has not done something similar.
delete double post
Clearly a sign that Fantilli should come back to UM for another year.
I've heard a Frozen Four title pairs well with a WJHC and WHC.
This was Latvia’s “gold medal” and they played like it. Congrats
Silver for Seider!
So as an update...
I flew to Riga today because I had a few days to kill before I continue with my planned European itinerary.
I have never seen anything like it. Pretty much every person here is wearing Latvian jerseys and people are just driving up and down the streets honking their horns and cheering. There have been multiple large gatherings to celebrate the achievement. Bars and restaurants have signs and banners everywhere.
I have never seen any city celebrate any achievement anywhere near as much as this. When the players returned to Riga they were given a hero's welcome which I would assume will be thousands of orders of magnitude larger than whatever the gold medal-winning Canadian team receives.
Cool story, bro. And I mean that sincerely - that's a great way to take advantage of some free time and great fortune to be able to witness that moment.