OVERTIME GLORY: USA STUNS CANADA IN HISTORIC FINAL

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The United States and Canada have long defined excellence in women’s ice hockey. On Sunday in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, they reminded the world why. In a breathtaking gold medal final at the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship, the Americans came out on top, edging Canada 4–3 in a game that needed overtime to determine the winner.

The Longest Game in Cham­pi­onship His­to­ry

This was not just anoth­er chap­ter in the USA-Cana­da saga. It became the longest game in the his­to­ry of the women’s world cham­pi­onships. Tes­sa Janecke emerged as the hero of the night by scor­ing her third goal of the tour­na­ment, and the most cru­cial one of her career, with just under three min­utes left in the extra peri­od. Her game-win­ner not only secured the gold medal but also served as a pow­er­ful response to last year’s over­time loss to Cana­da in Uti­ca, New York.

Momen­tum Shifts and Rapid Goals

For near­ly 30 min­utes, both teams fought hard with­out break­ing the dead­lock. Then came a sud­den burst of action. Car­o­line Har­vey and Abbey Mur­phy gave the U.S. a 2–0 lead with goals scored only 30 sec­onds apart. Cana­da quick­ly respond­ed through Danielle Ser­dachny and Jen­nifer Gar­diner, who tied the game with two goals scored with­in the next two min­utes. All four goals came in an elec­tri­fy­ing span of two and a half min­utes.

Tay­lor Heise put the U.S. ahead once more in the third peri­od, but Cana­di­an star Sarah Fil­li­er answered back, lev­el­ing the score again and send­ing the game into a dra­mat­ic over­time.

A Team Effort to Remem­ber

“Games between these two teams are always clas­sics, and tonight was no dif­fer­ent,” said U.S. head coach John Wrob­lews­ki. “We had play­ers up and down the line­up step up for us. It was a team effort, I couldn’t be proud­er.”

Goalie Gwyneth Philips, who played a key role through­out the tour­na­ment, cap­tured the emo­tion of the win. “Shock and awe. I’m ecsta­t­ic,” she said at the final buzzer.

A Per­fect Tour­na­ment

This vic­to­ry com­plet­ed a flaw­less tour­na­ment for the Amer­i­cans. They remained unbeat­en, hav­ing also defeat­ed Cana­da in the group stage. On the way to the final, they beat Ger­many in the quar­ter­fi­nal and host Czech Repub­lic in the semi­fi­nal. The title marks the 11th world cham­pi­onship for the U.S., which now stands just two behind Canada’s record of 13.

A Record-Break­ing Crowd

This year’s tour­na­ment was also mem­o­rable for its record-set­ting fan atten­dance. A total of 122,331 spec­ta­tors turned out to sup­port the event, sur­pass­ing the pre­vi­ous record of 119,231 set in 2007 in Win­nipeg.

Fin­land Takes Bronze

Ear­li­er on Sun­day, Fin­land claimed the bronze medal with a 4–3 over­time win against the Czech Repub­lic. It is great to see the grow­ing depth and com­pet­i­tive­ness of women’s hock­ey world­wide.