More than a gold medal was on the line when Russia and Canada faced off the for the 2009 World Championship title on Sunday. In recent years, the two arch-rivals have firmly established themselves as the two hockey superpowers in the world.

In the eyes of many, Canada, the home of hockey, remains the undisputed alphadog, but the recent history of the IIHF World Championships tells another story. Since Vyacheslav Bykov became the head coach of Russia in 2006, the sbornaja has been on a amazing run not losing a single game in regular time in the IIHF World Championships. The Russian team has been undefeated since the OT loss to Finland in the 2007 semifinals. Last year, Russia claimed the ultimate prize by ending a 15-year gold draught in the 100 year anniversary of the IIHF  and even in the first real IIHF World Championship on Canadian soil. In the final, Russia beat the star-packed Canadian NHL team 5-4 after having been down 2-4.

"Losing to Russia on Canadian ground last year was a big deal", Canada's coach Lindy Ruff said. But the Postfinance arena filled to capacity with Russian fans provided a fitting stage for Canada to get even. "We have an opportunity to come back to the same spot an take care of business", Canadian captain Shane Doan said.

Giving the setting, the game obviously started a little nervous but it didn't take long before the Russians got the first powerplay after an interference by Shane Doan on Aleksandr Radulov. With the man advantage, Russia got the first chance when Ilya Kovalchuk found Sergei Zinoviev on the left, but the shot was aimed too central allowing Dwayne Roloson to cover and save. A few seconds later, Roloson made an amazing save on a shot by Aleksandr Perezhogin from the slot. With the teams back at even strength, Canada scored the go-ahead goal at 3:52. Shea Weber fired a shot from the blue line; Bryzgalov stretched the right pad and saved, but the rebound wasn't cleared by his defense ending up on Doan's blade who made a nice cross pass to an unchallenged Jason Spezza for the 1-0.

Midway through the first period, Canadian defenseman Braydon Coburn shot the puck out of the rink in his own end, and thus repeated Rick Nash's devastating error in last year's final. Russia quickly capitalized as Oleg Saprykin deflected a hard shot from the point by Vitaly Atyushov. After the goal, Russia stepped up the pressure, and Dwayne Roloson made several spectacular saves on open Russian scoring opportunies.

Canada roared back in the second period applying intense pressure, but the defensive minded Russian team stood its ground. Russia got an odd chance in the 12 minute when Dmitri Kalinin was stopped by Roloson on the rush. Two minutes later, Braydon Coburn errored again when he unwisely pinched the puck at the Russian blue line.  Aleksandr Radulov broke out with the puck and dashed the length of the ice on a two-on-one. Instead of passing the puck, Radulov faked both defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and  Roloson and shot to the far side for a 2-1 Russian lead.

In the third period, Russia played a masterful defensive game, not allowing the Canadiens to play the game as they wanted, largely limiting them to harmless shots from the perimeter, and always patiently waiting for the counterattack that didn't come.

In the last two minutes, Canada attempted to step up the pressure, but without conviction and ideas. With a few seconds left, Lindy Ruff tried to shake things up by calling for a time-out and pulling Roloson, but it didn't work. Russia could celebrate their second gold in a row for the first time since the days of the mighty red machine. With 25 IHWC gold medals, Russia furthermore regained their bragging right as the sport's most prolific winner.

Russia - Canada 2-1 (1-1, 1-0, 0-0)
10 May 2009, Postfinance Arena, Berne, Att: 11,454
0-1 05:37 Jason Spezza 7 (Doan, Weber)
1-1 12:59 Oleg Saprykin 4 (Atyushov, Kalinin) PP1
2-1 34:30 Aleksander Radulov 4 (Gorovikov, Saprykin)
RUS 2x2, CAN 3x2, SOG 17:38 (8:11, 5:16, 4:11)
Best players: RUS: Ilya Bryzgalov, CAN: Drew Doughty

RUS: Ilya Bryzgalov; Ilya Nikulin, Vitali Proshkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Aleksei Tereschenko, Aleksei Morozov - Vitali Vishnevski, Oleg Tverdovsky, Aleksandr Frolov, Sergei Zinoviev (4), Aleksandr Perezhogin - Dmitri Kalinin, Vitali Atyushov, Oleg Saprykin, Konstantin Gorovikov, Aleksandr Radulov - Konstantin Korneev, Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Kuryanov, Sergei Mozyakin.
CAN: Dwayne Roloson; Dan Hamhuis, Shea Weber, Shawn Horcoff, Mike Fisher (2), Travis Zajac - Drew Doughty, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Derek Roy, Steve Stamkos, Martin St. Louis - Chris Phillips, Braydon Coburn (2), Shane Doan (2), Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley - Luke Schenn, Joel Kwiatkowski, Matthew Lombardi, Scottie Upshall, Colby Armstrong.
Refs: Peter Orszag (SVK) & Jyri Petteri Rönn (FIN)
Linesmen: Petr Blumel (CZE) / Peter Feola (USA)