Stockholm, Sweden- Team USA needed overtime to do it but the Red White and Blue won its first goal medal since 1934, beating a more than worthy Team Switzerland 1-0 on a goal from Buffalo Sabre Tage Tompson. For the second year in a row, Kevin Fiala and his Swiss compatriots will have to settle for silver after another excellent run at the men's Worlds.
Team USA and Switzerland kicked off the gold medal game in Stockholm with an exciting first frame of hockey, featuring lots of hits and back and forth action. Goaltenders Jeremy Swayman (USA) and Leonordo Genoni were both called upon to make big saves and both answered the bell. They also both lived up to the old adage that your goalie is your best penalty killer, especially Genoni who made some key saves on the US power play in the winding seconds of the first period.
The US was clearly looking to impose their physicality on the Swiss early, but Switzerland matched the Americans hit for hit. Given that it's been 92 years since the USA won a gold medal in this tournament and that the Swiss have lost all seven of their previous gold medal games, physicality, and board battles were certainly to be expected.
With just over five minutes expired in the second period, the USA were awarded a penalty shot after Michael Fora was called for hooking. After a few moments of gamemenship surrounding who would take the shot, Connor Garland skated out to center. Garland tried to wait Genoni out, but the Swiss netminder read the play perfectly to keep things scoreless.
As the second period wore on, the USA would start to string together the better of the chances, forcing Genoni to make some tough saves in tight with lots of traffic in front of the Swiss net. Although the Americans picked up the pace in the second, both teams would head off to the dressing rooms scoreless after forty minutes of play.
After the break, the tension kept building, and it started to look like the first goal might be the only goal. Every chance, however, continued to be turned away by Swayman and Genoni. With six minutes remaining in the third period, the Americans had a chance to take the lead on the power play but Genoni and the Swiss came up with a huge kill to keep things squared at zero. And things would stay knotted up through sixty, although the USA would finish with 39 shots on goals to Swizterland's 24 at the end of regulation.
The overtime period used the familiar 3-on-3 NHL format but extended beyond the allotted five minutes in the NHL, allowing for a full twenty minutes of overtime before going to a shootout. Tage Thompson and Team USA would barely need two minutes to end things though, putting an end to close to a century-long gold medal drought and sending the Swiss toan 0-8 record in gold medal finals at the IIHF World Championships.