Toronto Maple Leafs center David Kampf has won gold at the 2024 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Prague, helping Czechia win gold for the first time since 2010.
The Czechs won the game 2-0, with Kampf scoring an empty-netter in the dying seconds of the game. Kampf had seven points in nine games for Czechia, the best output he’s had at the tournament in just his second attempt.
The gold is Kampf’s first of any kind in IIHF competition.
Czechia last won gold back in 2010, with today’s win being their 13th in the combined history of Czechoslovakia and Czechia. It is Czechia’s 48th medal in team history, and they’ve become just the second host team in the past decade to win the title after Finland won it back in 2022.
Former Maple Leafs winger Ondrej Kase also represented the Czechs. Fabrice Herzog, who the Leafs drafted in 2013 and still owns his rights, won his first international medal for Switzerland.
The game was 0-0 after 40 minutes, with Czech goaltender Lukas Dostal and Swiss keeper Leonardo Genoni standing tall in net. The first goal came with about 10 minutes to go in regulation when Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak slapped home a one-timer from Tomas Kundratek, beating Swiss goalkeeper Leonardo Genoni for the 1-0 goal.
Kampf then scored with just 19 seconds left after winning a puck race to finish off the game.
Earlier in the day, Canada’s John Tavares and Sweden’s Pontus Holmberg battled it out for bronze. Both teams won their respective groups in the round-robin, so a spot in the bronze medal game for both was surprising.
Tavares was able to get an assist on Pierre-Luc Dubois’ 2-1 goal early in the third. Holmberg didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet, but he had the last laugh with Sweden coming back to win the game 4-2 – giving Holmberg his first medal with Sweden’s national team.
Holmberg finished the tournament with six assists as one of Sweden’s top playmaker.
With the loss, Canada saw its medal streak end at four years, while Sweden won its first since snagging back-to-back golds in 2017 and 2018.