Kent Johnson scored in a golden-goal period at Edmonton's Rogers Place to give Canada a 3-2 win in the final.

Goals from Joshua Roy and William Dufour had given Canada a 2-0 lead, but Finland fought back admirably as strikes from Aleksi Heimosalmi and Joakim Kemell in the third period levelled the score.

Canada won all seven matches they played at the World Junior Championship, with the final the first time they had been taken to overtime.

Finland's only other defeat was a 6-3 loss versus Canada in the group stage.

Sweden beat the Czech Republic 3-1 in the bronze-medal match, denying the Czechs a first podium finish since 2005.

The Czech Republic nonetheless had a tournament to remember, including knocking out the defending champions from the United States in the quarter-finals.

Czech forward Jan Mysak was named to the tournament's All-Star Team, alongside Sweden goalkeeper Jesper Wallstedt, Swedish defender Emil Andrae, Kemell and Canadian duo Olen Zellweger and Mason McTavish.

McTavish had two assists in the final and was also named Most Valuable Player.

This men's under-20 tournament was supposed to be played last December and January in Edmonton and Red Deer and had got underway, only for a series of COVID-19 outbreaks to lead to its cancellation.

The IIHF opted to start again from scratch.

Latvia replaced Russia in the line-up, with the latter nation banned from IIHF competition because of the war in Ukraine.