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The last time these two teams met, Finland struck first and then proceeded to sit back and protect the lead. Canada had no answer for it then. But after McDavid’s goal, Canada never really gave Finland — which had only trailed twice in this tournament — a chance to get back into the game.

“That’s what we needed,” Canadian defenceman Matt Dumba said. “We knew we were up against a good opponent. We knew it wasn’t going to be flashy. It had to be a 1-0, 2-0 game. Give the boys credit. We just stuck to our guns.”

Photo by Ivan Sekretarev / AP

It was boring hockey. And that was how Canada wanted it.

The team had rolled through the tournament by relying on its potent offence. But the Canadians knew from experience that they could not play that style and expect to win against Finland, which preferred to sit back and lull its opponents into making mistakes.

Finland managed just 16 shots. Laine, who was named tournament MVP after scoring seven goals and 12 points, barely touched the puck. When the shots came, goalie Cam Talbot was there for his fourth shutout of the tournament.

“I think you just saw how we managed the puck,” McDavid said. “We didn’t really feed into their transition or give them many chances off the rush. Anything that we did give up, Talbot was amazing.”

Said Rielly: “The credit goes to the coaching staff. We knew exactly what they were going to do, we knew what we had to do and we went out there and did it and won.”

Photo by Pavel Golovkin / AP

For Canada, this win might not mean much in the grand scheme of things. This isn’t the Olympics or the World Cup or even the world juniors. Still the win was important for a player like McDavid.

In September, he will play for Team North America, a squad of under-23 players, at the World Cup. And while there are going to be other talented young players on that team, everyone will look to him as the focal point on offence.

As he showed on Sunday, this is not a player who is more than capable of stealing the spotlight.