24 Feb 2014

Canada finish on a high with hockey gold

7:41 am on 24 February 2014

Canada beat Sweden 3-0 to retain their Winter Olympic men's ice hockey title in Sochi, confirming their status as the sport's undisputed superpower.

Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Chris Kunitz each scored as Canada capped an unbeaten run through the tournament to claim their third gold medal in four Winter Games and their first outside North America in 62 years.

It also marked the first time since the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games that a team had marched through the competition without a loss.

Carey Price made 24 saves to record his second straight Olympic shutout.

The Swedish attack that had already been hit by injuries received another blow just before the opening faceoff when centre Nicklas Backstrom was a shock late scratching after testing positive for a banned substance.

Sweden and Canada had met once before to decide gold with the Swedes coming away with a shootout win at the 1994 Lillehammer Games to be crowned Olympic champions for the first time.