Canada wins first-place duel in OT

In a nail-biter that stayed scoreless until a wild third period, Dylan Cozens tallied twice, including the overtime winner, as Canada beat Czechia 4-3 to top Group A..

With Canada’s Pierre-Luc Dubois serving a holding minor in overtime, Cozens carried the puck into the Czech zone and beat Czech goalie Lukas Dostal with a backhander at 3:13.

Tuesday’s group-stage finale at the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship leaves Canada with 19 points. Czechia, with 16 points, is now in second place, but could finish third if Switzerland defeats Finland.

With a never-say-die spirit, Czechia trailed 3-1 with under five minutes left in regulation, but scored twice with an extra attacker on the ice to send this thriller to extra time.
 

Cozens leads these Worlds with eight goals and has thrust himself firmly into the MVP conversation. The Buffalo Sabres ace had seven goals and 13 points when Canada won silver at his last Worlds in 2022, and also owns two World Junior medals (gold in 2020, silver in 2021).

Dawson Mercer and Brandon Hagel added singles for Canada.

Dominik Kubalik, Ondrej Palat, and Roman Cervenka replied for Czechia.

As a showdown between the defending champions and the host nation, this was the clear marquee matchup of this year’s preliminary round. It lived up to the advance hype.

Both coaches deployed their top goalies, with Canada’s Jordan Binnington dueling Czechia’s Dostal. Canada outshot Czechia 26-22.

Canada’s win spoiled the addition of superstar winger David Pastrnak into the lineup after his Boston Bruins were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the second round. Coming off his second consecutive season of 110 points or more, the 27-year-old joined NHL teammate Pavel Zacha on the top line with Roman Cervenka, the Czech captain and leading scorer.

Pastrnak’s lone medal from his previous four Worlds came in 2022 when he helped the Czechs win bronze in Tampere, scoring a tournament-high seven goals.

The packed arena enjoyed some early end-to-end action in the scoreless first period.

The Czechs flirted with danger when Jakub Krejcik went off for putting the puck over the glass in his end in the first minute, but Jakub Flek nearly opened the scoring when he stole the puck from Connor Bedard at the point and sped down left wing for a nice chance that Binnington stymied. Dostal came up big when Dubois fired a power-play slapper.

Nearing the 14-minute mark, the Canadian goalie made a good…