Finland crowned 2026 world cham­pions!

Konsta Helenius scored the golden goal in the 10:42 minute of the first overtime period, securing Finland a 1-0 victory over Switzerland and the gold medal at the World Championship. It is the second year in a row that the final went into overtime with a score of 0-0.

This is Finland's first gold medal since 2022 and third in the last seven years. Switzerland has now appeared in five gold medal games since 2013 – and lost all of them. Nino Niederreiter is the only player to have appeared in all five finals.

What's even more incredible is that in the last four games since 2018, the Swiss have played a total of 249:31 minutes of gold medal hockey without scoring a goal.

They lost 1-0 to the USA in overtime last year and 2-0 to the Czech Republic in 2024. In 2018 they lost to Sweden 2-3 in a penalty shootout, but the last Swiss goal in that game came early in the second period (Timo Meier).

Both teams hit the post in overtime, which was played 3-on-3. Jesse Puljujarvi skated up the ice and fired towards the far corner and appeared to have beaten Leonardo Genoni, but the puck stayed out, much to the relief of the 10,000 fans in the Swiss Life Arena who were hoping their home team would win a gold medal for the first time.

Shortly after Puljujarvi's shot hit the post, Damien Riat fired a shot that deflected off a stick and then hit the crossbar. This one didn't want to go online either.

The Swiss had a visibly nervous start to the game. Genoni, usually unflappable and confident, made two or three poor decisions with the puck and was lucky it didn't result in a goal.

The Finns, on the other hand, showed self-confidence from the start. They had a great chance early on after a quick counterattack when Anton Lundell passed the puck to Olli Maata in front of the goal. Maata cleverly deflected the puck and Genoni had to be wide awake in this situation.

The Finns thought they had taken the lead in the 13th minute, but video review clearly showed that Lundell had deflected the puck into the goal with his stick well above the height of the crossbar.

The Swiss, cheered on by a sellout crowd mostly dressed in red, had their best chance in the last two moves of the period. They landed some good shots, which led to a strong reaction from the Finns, who conceded two small penalties in the same game situation.

This gave the Swiss a long 5-on-3 at the start of the second period. But when they got back on the fresh ice, they didn't even manage a shot, although they led the tournament statistics with eleven power play goals from the first nine games.

The Swiss' nervousness was still noticeable, but as the game progressed they slowly came out of their hesitant style of play and at the end of the third they had a shot lead of 8:2 and dominated the action. Still, they had nothing to show for it.

Pius Suter had the best chance to score the first goal for Switzerland. After a scramble in front of the Finnish goal, the puck slipped backwards to Suter, but he shot past the open goal.

From the start of the third period it felt like overtime - the next goal decided. The teams acted hesitantly, but Finland had the upper hand. Nevertheless, the Swiss had two chances to score the long-awaited goal, but Justus Annunen was there both times. First he parried against Roman Josi, who entered the penalty area and threw himself against the goal as he tried to push the puck in.

Then Suter went towards the goal alone from a short distance, but was unable to lift the puck over the goalkeeper. After the regular break, the teams skated onto the ice for a 20-minute overtime period, knowing full well that they would play until a goal was scored.