Sidney Crosby scored on a breakaway in the second period as Canada retained their Olympic ice hockey title, rolling over Sweden 3-0 to claim a record ninth gold.
Jonathan Toews and Chris Kunitz also scored and goaltender Carey Price posted the shutout for Canada who became the first country to win back-to-back Winter Olympic Games titles since the Soviet Union in 1988.
It was the second-straight gold medal game where Canadian captain Crosby rose to the occasion.
Crosby, who clinched gold for Canada with an overtime winner in Vancouver in 2010, had been contributing on defence but wasn’t being rewarded for his efforts on the scoresheet in the Sochi Games.
He had just two assists heading into the gold medal game.
Crosby scored on a backhand deke to give Canada a 2-0 lead with 4:17 left in the second period after stripping the puck off Sweden’s Jonathan Ericsson at the Canadian blueline.
He raced in alone on net and gave Swedish netminder Henrik Lundqvist a shoulder fake one way, then deked the other way and scored.
Finland took bronze by beating the US 5-0 on Saturday.
“It’s a great feeling. Look at Vancouver, and it was right down to the bitter end, an overtime nail-biter,” said Crosby.
“Since then, a lot of things have happened, so to be back here in the same situation with a lot of the same guys that were in Vancouver, it’s pretty special.”
Sunday’s game, in front of a crowd of 11,076 at the Bolshoi Ice Palace, was a matchup of two undefeated teams and the last two Olympic winners as Canada was crowned champions four years ago and Sweden won gold in 2006.
Crosby is one of 11 players back from 2010 for Canada who got the job done this time with a lockdown defence and strong goaltending from Carey Price.
The Montreal Canadiens netminder carried the load in goal as Canada allowed just three goals in six games. Price made 23 stops on Sunday.
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