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Canucks Garland, O'Connor win gold at 2025 IIHF World Championship

Conor Garland was named a top-three player for Team USA, as they knocked off Switzerland in overtime in the gold-medal game.
Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
garland-team-usa-iihf-world-championship-gaudreau
Tage Thompson, Zach Werenski, Clayton Keller, Conor Garland, and Brady Skjei accept the IIHF World Championship Cup from IIHF president Luc Tardif while holding a Johnny Gaudreau jersey in front of the trophy on May 25, 2025.TSN

Vancouver Canucks forwards Conor Garland and Drew O’Connor helped Team USA break a 91-year gold-medal drought at the IIHF World Championship.

The last time that Team USA won the gold at the IIHF World Championship was in 1933, which predates the Original Six era of the NHL by nine years. In fact, Team USA hasn’t even played in a gold-medal game at the tournament since 1934, though they won two silver medals in round-robin tournaments that did not feature a championship game.

This year, Team USA was on a mission, with Garland playing a key role on the team’s top line, as well as a leadership role as one of the oldest players on the otherwise very young team.

They were facing an equally determined Swiss squad, who had a dominant tournament. They had previously shut out the U.S. in the preliminary round and had allows just nine goals against in nine games heading into the gold-medal game. Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni posted four shutouts, and set a tournament record for the longest time without allowing a goal.

Genoni was perfect through three periods, making 39 saves on 39 shots to keep Team USA at bay. At the other end of the ice, however, Jeremy Swayman was equally perfect, if less busy.

O’Connor had the best chance for the U.S. in the first period, jumping on a loose puck in the slot, but Genoni got his blocker on the initial shot, then held the puck out as O’Connor crashed the net.

In the second period, Garland had his country’s best chance. 

Frank Nazar was hooked on a breakaway by Michael Fora, giving the U.S. a penalty shot. Since IIHF rules allow any player to take a penalty shot, as long as they’re not in the penalty box, Garland was given the opportunity to open the scoring, but couldn’t tuck the puck past Leonardo Genoni on a deke to his forehand.

If the U.S. hadn’t won in overtime, the decision to have Garland shoot instead of Nazar would have been dissected for years.

Just as in the first two periods, neither team could solve the opposing netminder in the third, sending the 0-0 game to overtime.

“Win a period, win a tournament,” said Garland on TSN heading into the third, though it equally applies to overtime. “We would have taken this on the flight over.”

In the extra frame, Tage Thompson took a pass from Logan Cooley, slowed to open up a gap on Swiss defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler, dragged the puck inside to change the angle, and ripped a wristshot past Genoni for the gold-medal goal.

It was heartbreak for Switzerland, who have fallen short of gold and had to settle for silver four times now in the last 13 years. It was small consolation that Genoni was named tournament MVP for his outstanding performance.

As Garland joined the rest of Team USA’s leadership core to accept the IIHF World Championship Cup, he and his teammates held up a Johnny Gaudreau jersey in front of the trophy, honouring their teammate who was taken from the world far too soon.

Garland finished the tournament third on Team USA in scoring with 5 goals and 10 points in 10 games, matching Markus Näslund and Elias Pettersson for the most points by a Canuck at a World Championship tournament.

Beyond the gold medal, Garland was also named one of the top-three players on Team USA, alongside Nazar and Cooley. 
 

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