Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone has been crowned the MVP of the IIHF World Championships.
It was a bittersweet day for Stone and his Vegas Golden Knights team-mates Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore as Team Canada had to settle for a Silver Medal in Slovakia.
Canada were unable to round off what had been a dominant tournament with the ultimate prize after losing 3-1 to Finland in the Gold Medal game earlier today.
Golden Knights defenseman Theodore did open the scoring after waltzing past the Finland blueline before blasting a shot beyond Kevin Lankinen. Anthony Mantha and Jared McCann got the helpers on the goal.
Team Canada outshot Finland 44-22 but they couldn’t break their opposition down and two tucks from Marko Anttila and a late effort from Harri Pesonen were enough to give Finland their second Gold Medal since 2011.
There will be some silverware heading back to Sin City, however, after Stone was named the tournament’s MVP.
Stone was simply superb for Team Canada and finished the tournament with eight goals and six assists for 14 points in 10 games. His eight tucks led the entire tournament and his 14 points led all Canadians.
Stone was also selected in the media’s All-Star team after producing a number of key moments for Team Canada, including a last-gasp winner against Slovakia, an assist to help take Switzerland to overtime before scoring the winner and then the opening goal in the semi-final win over the Czech Republic.
Andrei Vasilevski, Filip Hronek, Mikko Lehtonen, William Nylander and Jakub Voracek were also named to the All-Star team.
It was also a strong tournament for Marchessault and Theodore who finished with 10 points (three goals, seven assists) and seven points (two goals, five assists) respectively.
All three players will now get a well-earned rest before reporting back to training camp and getting ready to help the Golden Knights prepare to compete for the Stanley Cup once again.
Meanwhile, Vegas forward Nikita Gusev played a starring role as Russia secured the Bronze Medal with a hard-fought 3-2 win against the Czech Republic earlier today.
Gusev got the primary helper on Artyom Anisimov’s second period tally before scoring a penalty shot as he went five-hole on Czech goalie Simon Hrubrec.
Gusev was one of the shining lights of the tournament and he finished as the third-highest scoring leader with 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) and a plus/minus rating of +12.
Expected to compete for a roster spot in training camp, performing as well as he did on the international stage would have done wonders for Gusev’s confidence as he now bids to prove that he can be a success in the NHL with the Golden Knights.
Now the IIHF World Championships are over, all of the focus for the Vegas Golden Knights will now be on allowing their players to recharge their batteries before returning to work and ensuring the foundations are laid for what will hopefully be a successful 2019-20 campaign.
We at Vegas Hockey Knight will be starting our 2018-19 Vegas Golden Knights Player Report Cards from Monday onwards, starting with Marc-Andre Fleury and the Netminders.