What a championship! Herewith a look back at some of the highlights of the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
Game 1: IIHF on-ice officials take to the ice wearing numbers on the back of their sweaters to better identify them.
Game 2: The United States wasted no time in putting to rest any worries that such a young team was not capable of being competitive. They knocked off Finland by a dominating 5-1 score to raise eyebrows and get the tournament going.
Game 3: Sweden had leads of 3-1 and 4-2, but against the home side the leads didn’t hold up, much to the delight of the 17,000 pro-Czech fans. But although the game ended in regulation 5-5, the Swedes won in a penalty-shot shootout.
Game 5: Austria stunned the Swiss, tying the game 3-3 in the last minute with an extra attacker and then winning in a shootout.
Game 20: Finland’s Pekka Rinne shut out the Norwegians, 5-0. That in itself isn’t remarkable, but it started a streak of four consecutive shutouts for the team and records for team and individual shutout streaks since World War II.
Game 23: France shut out Austria, 2-0, in a critical game which helped the French stay up for 2016. In the process, 39-year-old Cristobal Huet recorded his first career shutout in IIHF competition.
Game 27: Canada defeated Sweden 6-4 despite playing its worst period of the tournament to start the game. Trailing 3-0 after 20 minutes, the Canadians showed their incredible offensive talent and rallied for the victory.
Game 30: Capitalizing on its chances, Belarus shocked the United States by scoring five times on 23 shots en route to a 5-2 win.
Game 41: The Swiss gave Sweden all Tre Kronor could handle, but Filip Forsberg gave the Swedes a win with an overtime goal in a tense and exciting game.
Game 46: Although Slovakia struggled this year, it managed to take Russia to overtime thanks to a tying goal from Marian Gaborik in the third period. Artemi Panarin scored the winner in OT, though.
Game 48: Finland beat Belarus 3-2 in a shootout, but when Yevgeni Kovyrshin scored early in the third for Belarus, it snapped a shutout streak of 237:05 for Pekka Rinne, the longest streak since before World War II.
Game 53: France beat Latvia, 3-2, in a shootout. The French rallied from 2-0 down in the third for the win, ensuring their place in Russia next year and at the same time relegating Austria.
Game 54: Slovakia shocked the Americans briefly. Trailing 3-0 early in the second period, the Slovaks rallied to take a 4-3 lead but eventually lost on a Jack Eichel goal in overtime.
Game 60: The Czechs beat Finland 5-3 in the quarter-finals thanks to two goals from Jaromir Jagr. These were his last goals of the tournament and established a record for the oldest player to score in WM competition. Was this the last we’ll see of number 68? Incredibly, this game marked the last time the Czechs scored in 2015 as they were shut out in both the semi-finals and bronze-medal game.
Game 63: The U.S. beat the Czechs to win the bronze medal. They had already beaten the Czech in 2004, the last time the Worlds were in the Czech Republic, in the playoff round en route to bronze.
Game 64: The incredible Canadians hammered the Russians, 6-1 to win gold. By winning all ten games in regulation, they won a $1 million Infront Team Jackpot in the bonus’ first year of existence. Their 66 total goals was the most since the Soviets’ 77 goals in the 1977 Worlds.