Canada's Connor McDavid celebrates his goal against the United States
Canada's Connor McDavid (17) celebrates his goal against the United States during the third period of their IIHF World Junior Championship ice hockey game in Malmo, Sweden, December 31, 2013. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk

Canada won the gold medal at World Juniors, beating Russia. It was a thrilling final at Air Canada Centre.

Canada had a thrilling 5-4 victory over Russia on Monday. Canadian players had gold medals hanging around the necks as they locked arms and sang "O Canada." The last time Canada won the gold medal was in 2009. There were moments of panic, but Canadian players eventually ended the draught. At first, it seemed easy as Canada had a four-goal lead over its opponent. However, Canada struggled to hold on to the lead. Canadian player Sam Reinhart said that the players, nevertheless, did not panic. At least, he said that they tried not to panic. Connor McDavid, who played a major role in Canada' victory, said that the players had never really been under pressure. The media and all the fans might've been putting that pressure on us, but we were just able to brush it off," CBC News quotes McDavid, "Right now this is just absolute joy."

Several Canadian media outlets, including GlobalNews called it a classic victory for the country over its arch rivals. Canadian defender Josh Morrissey said that there were some tense moments. He called it "one of the craziest games" he had ever been a part of. Max Domi said that Canadian players had taken advantage of the "lifetime opportunity." They had their home crowd of 19,014 supporting for the team. Canada's lead over Russia was 5-1 at its best, but Russia started scoring one after another. Nikolai Goldobin, Sergey Tolchinsky, Ivan Barbashev and Dmitri Yudin scored for their country as they took Russia dangerously close to its opponents. Canada's captain Curtis Lazar said that every Canadian player had played equally well as no one had stood out any further than others.

Canada's victory was heavily influenced by a fabulous performance by Zach Fucale who finished with 26 saves. It eventually helped Canada finish the match with the lead as Fucale did not allow Russia to score further. He made two of the biggest saves in the last moments of the match when Russia played with an extra attacker.

This was the 16th time Canada won the gold medal since 1977.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@IBTimes.com.au