// O Canada...

The Canadian junior men's hockey team made a case for it to be called the best ever with its domination of the 2005 world junior tournament.

If there was any question whether these players were unique in the history of Canadian junior teams before Tuesday's final, this squad put an exclamation mark on their answer with a resounding 6-1 win over Russia for gold. Leading 2-1 after the first period on goals by Ryan Getzlaf and Danny Syvret, Canada put the game out of reach when Jeff Carter, Patrice Bergeron, Anthony Stewart and Dion Phaneuf scored in the second frame.

This was a talented, mature and relentlessly determined team thanks to a combination of the NHL lockout and a spike in talent of Canadian players born in 1985.

Canada outscored opposing teams 41-7 in this tournament. What is more telling is that it gave up only seven goals in six games and only three of them were even-strength goals. They never trailed once.

The closest team in depth and talent to this one may be the team in Red Deer, Alta., in 1995, which was the last time there was an NHL labour disruption. Canada outshot the rest of the field 49-14 that year.

It is a measure of Canada's smothering defence that starter Jeff Glass saw only 19 shots from the skilled Russians and only 11 in the semifinal against the Czech Republic. Canada was so strong defensively it didn't need Glass to be spectacular, just dependable, which he was.

Only a shot off a Canadian stick by Alexei Emelin beat Glass in the final.

Canadian head coach Brent Sutter made defence a priority because he felt with such a talented group the offence would take care of itself and he was correct.

With the exception of an inconsistent performance in the opening game against Slovakia, Canada had the same work ethic and attitude against every team, regardless of the colour of the jersey, which led to some lopsided scores.

This Canadian team had a lot of things going for it, not the least of which was that Ralph Engelstad Arena often felt like it was in Canada. Hundreds of Canadians, most of them Manitobans, made the trek to Grand Forks to create a home-ice atmosphere for their team.

"I think the Canadian people must be proud of this team," said Russian forward Alexander Ovechkin, who took hit after hit from the Canadian team and left the game in the second period with a shoulder injury.

But while the team's road to victory looked easy on paper, but it wasn't without its bumps.

Defenceman Cam Barker was sent home after three games with mononucleosis, forward Jeremy Colliton was able to play only one period with a knee injury and defenceman Brent Seabrook played through a shoulder injury he suffered on the first day of selection camp.

Sutter, a Stanley Cup winner during his 18-year NHL career and a former international player for Canada, guided the team with a firm, but intelligent hand. This was Canada's oldest team at the world juniors and with a record number of returning players from last year's tournament, they knew the drill and what was at stake.

"I'm a big believer you have to be a mentally strong team to have any success," Sutter said. "Going into today, I was obviously nervous and worked up, but I also had tremendous amount of confidence in this group because of the way they had handled themselves not just in the games, but the way they handled themselves between games and at practice and how hard they practised.

"They were truly professionals every day, every step of the way."

While the veterans didn't like to talk about last year's debacle in Helsinki, where the U.S. scored three goals in the third period for a 4-3 win, there was a sense of redemption for that in the team's victory Tuesday.

Canada's last gold at the world junior tournament was 1997 and there has been four silver medals and two bronze since then.

The NHL lockout was a factor not so much in giving the junior players who had been in the NHL last season - Bergeron of the Boston Bruins was the only one - but it kept players who might have been there this season in the junior ranks, such as forwards Carter, Getzlaf, Michael Richards and Stewart and defenceman Phaneuf.

Bergeron was named MVP of the tournament and has NHL teams kicking themselves for not taking him in the first round of the 2003 draft. He helped Canada win the 2004 men's world championship and now a world junior title in 2005.

"It was the experience of my life because it was with guys my age," said Bergeron.

He led the tournament in points with five goals and eight assists, followed by Getzlaf, a standout in the gold-medal game, with three goals and nine assists.
Carter was another impact player for Canada, leading the team in goals with seven. Phaneuf was a workhorse on the short-staffed defence and also contributed on offence.

Sidney Crosby took his game to another level from when he was a 16-year-old playing for this team last year. He excelled among players two years older and will be invited to play for Canada many more times.

Richards delivered as captain by scored the needed goal, winning the key faceoff or dishing out a team-lifting hit. Canada's special teams were the best in the tournament thanks to the efforts of players such as Nigel Dawes, Clarke MacArthur, Shea Weber and Colin Fraser.

"This is the big one," said Getzlaf. "We're going to enjoy this for years to come. Anytime you see the guys, we'll have that special bond now."