Media weighs in on Canadian loss to Russia

What happened?

That's the question Canadian hockey fans are asking themselves after Canada squandered a three-goal lead in a stunning 5-3 loss to Russia in the gold medal game Wednesday at the world junior hockey championship in Buffalo, N.Y.

The collapse was the hot topic around the office water cooler on Thursday morning, spawning debate and questions as to how Canada lost a game it seemed destined to win.

Below is a small sampling of the media response to Canada's stunning loss.

CBCSports.ca

Another remarkable chapter in the Canada-Russia hockey rivalry had just been written and the Canadian juniors were disconsolate. There was no Paul Henderson last-minute drama, no Mario Lemieux extraordinary goal, no Jordan Eberle late-game superhuman exhibition. Instead, the Russians celebrated another unlikely comeback, possibly the biggest in the history of the world under-20 tournament.

The National Post

We ask so much of these kids, and they ask so much of themselves. They're no longer boys and not quite men, most of them, and when the world junior hockey championships roll around all the nation does is ask them to live up to everyone who came before them, to live up to Canadian hockey. We ask them to play like men, or near enough, with the spotlights bright and burning.

And sometimes, they falter. Sometimes, they fall.

The Globe and Mail

It will go down as a Game for the Ages in Russia.

Canada collapsed no other explanation required and the world junior championship gold-medal game that was en route to being a victory for the little guys bizarrely twisted into one for the bad guys at least in the shocked, disbelieving eyes of the Canadian fans who packed HSBC Arena to witness one of the greatest comebacks in international hockey history.

The Toronto Star

One last time they poured across the longest undefended border in the world with passports in hand, some wrapped in flags, others dressed as Mounties, all expecting a coronation.

Instead, they witnessed the greatest meltdown in the long, proud history of the Canadian national program.

There have been shocking defeats before. Canada lost to Kazakhstan one year. Twice in the decade, Canadian teams have been beaten on home soil in the gold-medal game.

But this? This was something else entirely. Something hard to describe. Or explain.

The Toronto Sun

It was a team made up of "character" players, a gung-ho group who couldn't wait to wrap themselves in the flag when the game was finally over.

They belted out their national anthem with the enthusiasm of youth and the off-key tenor of boys turning to men.

And finally, they became world junior champions Wednesday night at the HSBC Arena because they refused to quit.

Sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?

When the shock subsides and Canadians are able to digest the third-period collapse that took them from Oh Canada to Oh No Canada in a 5-3 loss to the Russians, the explanation may be even harsher in the light of day.

For as much as their own country will erupt in deserved celebration at the victory, you can make a case that the Russians did it the Canadian way.

The Vancouver Sun

Sports, as many have noted, is like life: the minute you think you have it made, chances are you are just about to get the point of a frozen boot right in the privates.

In golf, let the thought enter your mind for one second that you have figured out the key to the long, straight drive, and you are practically guaranteed to hit the next one 50 yards right into a lily pond and lose all the money to your pain-in-the-butt friend.

In football, the moment you stop doing the things that got you the 10-point lead with three minutes to go, and start protecting it instead, is the moment your comfortable win turns into a back-pedalling, panic-stricken finish.

This is, sadly, what appears to have happened to the Canadian team Wednesday at the world junior hockey championship.

The Winnipeg Free Press

Just call them the Khomeback Khids.

In defiance of 18,000 rabid "hometown" fans, Russia staged one of the most dramatic comebacks in world junior championship history scoring five unanswered third-period goals to stun Team Canada 5-3 and claim gold in Buffalo on Wednesday night.

In fact, the last time a team travelled halfway around the world into the heart of hostile territory, refused to die despite the long odds against them and emerged victorious, the guy who scored the winning goal was named Henderson.

This time, his name was Artemi Panarin.

The Canadian Press

The scoring power of the Russian machine proved too much for Canada's lunch pail squad at the world junior hockey championship.

The Associated Press

Wow Russia. Woe, Canada.