Canada rally late to win World Cup of Hockey

Canada rally late to win World Cup of Hockey

TORONTO (CANADA) - Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal with 43 seconds left as Canada rallied in the closing minutes to win the World Cup of Hockey 2-1 over Team Europe.

Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal, his fourth of the tournament, as Canada rallied to win the World Cup of Hockey 2-1 over Team Europe

Canada won the best-of-three title series 2-0, after taking game one on Tuesday 3-1.

Marchand's goal was his fourth in the tournament, an eight-team global showcase that was revived this year after editions in 1996 and 2004.

Marchand's Boston Bruins teammate Patrice Bergeron scored on a power play to knot the score at 1-1 with less than three minutes to play, thwarting upstart Europe's bid to take the series to a decisive game three.

Team Europe goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves and Europe led most of the night after a first-period goal from another Bruins stalwart, Zdeno Chara.

It wasn't enough, however, as Canada captain Sidney Crosby was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, becoming the third player to win NHL MVP, the Conn Smyth as playoff MVP, and World Cup MVP. He joins all-time greats Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr.

Crosby had three goals and seven assists in the tournament, in which Canada went 6-0 en route to the title.

Canada have now won 16 straight games in so-called best-on-best competition.

Their last defeat in a top-flight tournament was to the United States in pool play at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

But Europe made them work to close it out.

Chara gave Europe a 1-0 lead at 6:26 of the first period, taking a feed from Andrej Sekera and firing a shot off Canada goalie Carey Price's arm into the net.

Although Price made 32 saves, it looked like Europe would make the one-goal lead stand up, until Canada broke through on a power play.

Anze Kopitar, the best penalty killer on a Europe team featuring players from eight different countries, was called for holding Corey Perry with 3:35 left in the third.

Canada took advantage, when Bergeron deflected Brent Burns's shot past Halak to tie the game.

With less than two minutes remaining, Europe got a power play chance when Drew Doughty high-sticked Tobias Rieder. But Marchand managed to grab a crisp pass from Jonathan Toews and fire it past Halak.

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