Canada wins world gold

The tears in coach Andy Murray's eyes as he addressed his Canadian team for the final time said just as much as the words coming out of his mouth.

His players stood around the dressing room in red Canadian jerseys draped with gold medals from the IIHF World Hockey Championship on Sunday, moments after watching Rick Nash score a breathtaking breakaway goal to secure a 4-2 win over Finland.

Murray had spent much of the past month explaining systems and strategies to the team, but his final message was about something much more important.

"Life is all about making a difference," he said. "You guys made a difference in Canada today. . . .

"We've got the deepest emotional well in the world for the game of hockey. I'll tell you, when Rick Nash was going in on that breakaway in the last minute or so, 31 million Canadians were carrying our emotions with him."

The elation on the faces of the players as they doused each other with champagne soon afterwards suggested that they understood.

The Canadians travelled a long way to play this tournament at a time when each of them could have been relaxing and playing golf. Nothing was more important than the gold medal to the guys who volunteered almost a month of their time to come to Russia and play for Canada.

"We do the best we can not to let our country down," said forward Justin Williams. "Every single guy worked his tail off to get what he deserved here. And we deserved this gold medal."

It was a textbook example of the formula needed to win international hockey tournaments.

Canada got goals from skilled players and grinders, timely saves from goaltenders Cam Ward and Dwayne Roloson and learned from its early mistakes. It all added up to a third world championship title in five years.