Czechia tops Switzerland 2-0 to win 2024 Ice Hockey World Championships

The Czech Republic has emerged as the winner of the 2024 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships following a narrow 2-0 defeat of Switzerland in Prague on Sunday evening. The home team celebrates their first gold medal at the annual event since 2010.

Tonight's game was hard-fought with both Czech goalkeeper Lukáš Dostál and his Swiss counterpart Leonardo Genoni allowing no goals through the end of two periods. The gold medal game was a scoreless tie heading into the final period following Sweden's 4-2 victory over Canada to win the bronze earlier this afternoon.

Halfway through the third period with about ten minutes left to go in regulation, NHL star David Pastrňák provided a decisive goal to put the Czech team up 1-0. After Swiss goalkeeper Genoni was taken out of the game in its final minutes, David Kämpf scored an empty net goal to put the Czech team up 2-0 with 19 seconds remaining.

Pastrňák joined the Czech team late in the tournament, which coincides with the Stanley Cup playoffs in North America. His Boston Bruins were eliminated from competition last weekend, allowing the star to fly to Prague. Pastrňák was fifth in the NHL with a total of 110 points (goals plus assists) for the 2023-24 season.

Earlier in the tournament's preliminary round, Switzerland had defeated the Czech team 2-1 following an overtime shootout. Well into the third period, it looked like tonight's game was destined to go to overtime before Pastrňák's goal.

The Czech Republic finished the preliminary round of this year's IIHF tournament with five wins in seven games, only losing in overtime to Switzerland and Canada. They defeated the U.S. team in the opening round of the playoffs on Thursday to advance to the semi-finals against Sweden.

During the semi-finals on Saturday, the Czech team stunned first-seeded Sweden with a 7-3 victory. Sweden had gone through the preliminary round of the tournament undefeated before an overtime victory against Finland in the quarter-finals.

The Czech Republic has now won a total of seven gold medals at the annual IIHF tournament, with another six coming as part of Czechoslovakia before 1993. They've won one silver as the Czech Republic, with an additional 12 as part of Czechoslovakia.