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By virtue of their thrilling overtime win in Vancouver four years earlier, the Canadian team arrived in Russia as the reigning Olympic champions. The Russians, playing on home ice, the offensively powerful Americans, and the always tough Swedish teams were also expected to vie for medals.
Canada began the tournament against Norway and though they got off to a slow start, the end result was a 3-1 Canadian victory. Canada then defeated Austria before taking on Finland in what was expected to be the team's first true test. The Finnish team gave Canada all they could handle, playing a tight-checking, physical game. The teams would exchange goals in regulation time, with Drew Doughty breaking the deadlock in overtime to give Canada the 2-1 victory.
The quarterfinal would see Canada square off against the surprising Latvian team. Led by goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis, who made 55 saves, Latvia gave Canada their biggest scare of the tournament. A late goal by Shea Weber gave Canada the 2-1 victory and the Canadian team and fans drew a collective sigh of relief.
The semifinal game would be a rematch of the 2010 gold medal game, with the United States and Canada once again facing off on the international stage. A first period goal by Jamie Benn proved to be the difference and the only goal of the hockey game as Canada's tenacious checking and defence stifled the American attack.
Sweden's road to the championship game was completely blemish-free. Despite several key injuries, they went undefeated during the qualification round and overwhelmed Slovenia in quarterfinal play by a score of 5-0. In seminfinal action, Sweden would take on their neighbours and rivals from Finland. With all the scoring coming in the second period, Sweden would emerge victorious by a score of 2-1, buoyed by Erik Karlsson who scored the game-winning goal.
The gold medal game pitted the 2006 Olympic champion, Sweden, against Canada, the 2002 and 2010 winner. Like he had done in the gold medal game four years earlier, Jonathan Toews opened the scoring to give Canada a 1-0 lead. 2010 hero, Sidney Crosby, would be next to find the back of the net for Canada. His breakaway goal gave Canada a seemingly insurmountable two goal lead and when Chris Kunitz made the score 3-0, the countdown was on. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Canada had repeated as Olympic champions.
Individual awards as selected by the tournament directorate went to Canada's Carey Price as Best Goalkeeper, Sweden's Erik Karlsson as Best Defenceman and the USA's Phil Kessel as best forward. The legendary Teemu Selanne was voted tournament MVP by the media.
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