Gallant, Kelly, Elliott win world hockey championship

Canada battles back from 0-3 tournament start to capture gold medal

SUMMERSIDE — Two Islanders and an Island resident have helped lead Canada to gold at the world hockey championships.

After a disappointing 0-3 start to the tournament, Canada battled its way back into contention and defeated Finland 3-2 in overtime Sunday in Riga, Latvia, to capture the gold medal.

Summerside’s Gerard (Turk) Gallant was the team’s head coach while Mike Kelly, a Charlottetown resident who grew up in Shamrock, P.E.I., near Kinkora, was one of his assistant coaches. Kevin Elliott, the longtime athletic therapist for the Charlottetown Islanders, is now part of the Hockey Canada staff and was with the team in Latvia.

Ottawa Senators forward Nick Paul scored the winner 6:26 into overtime. His Sens teammate Connor Brown had the assist.

Mikael Ruohomaa opened the scoring for Finland nine minutes into the game. Maxime Comtois tied it 4:30 into the second period with Brown and Sean Walker drawing the assists.

Petteri Lindbohm restored Finland’s lead five minutes into the third but Canada’s captain, Adam Henrique, tied it with 7:23 left to play in regulation. Comtois and Brown had the helpers.

Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for the win while Jussi Olkinuora stopped 23 shots in the loss.