Konsta Helenius scored the golden goal at 10:42 of the first overtime period to give Finland a 1-0 victory over Switzerland and World Championship gold.

This is the second year running the final game has gone to overtime with a 0-0 score.

This is Finland’s first gold medal since 2022 and third in the last seven years. Switzerland has now appeared in five gold-medal games since 2013--and lost them all. Nino Niederreiter is the only player to have been on all five teams.

More incredible, the Swiss have now played 249:31 of gold-medal hockey going back four games to 2018 without scoring a goal.

They lost to the United States 1-0 in overtime last year and 2-0 to Czechia in 2024. In 2018, they lost to Sweden 3-2 in a shootout, but the last Swiss goal in that game came early in the second period (Timo Meier).

Both teams hit the iron in the overtime period, which was played 3-on-3. Jesse Puljujarvi went end-to-end and wired a shot off the post to the far side, beating Leonardo Genoni cleanly. But the puck stayed out, much to the relief of the 10,000 Swiss Life Arena fans who were hoping their home team would win a gold medal for the first time.

Soon after Puljujarvi's post, Damien Riat took a shot that deflected off a stick and then hit the crossbar. It, too, stayed out.

"Switzerland is a great team," said Olli Maatta. "They’ve made the final three years in a row. We have a strong culture, you leave your ego outside the locker room, and that’s why it’s so awesome to come and play for Finland."

"The game was like a lot of up and downs," added Janne Kuokkanen. "I think both teams had a chance to score the goal. Hockey is like that, especially today. With the two best teams in a tournament, it's just one bounce and one lucky chance, and you score the goal, and that's it. In the end, it's 1-0. It's just small margins."

"It’s a huge disappointment, but, it’s hockey," said Swiss forward Denis Malgin. "It was a 0-0 game. We had our chances, and in OT it can go either way."

"Third time we were right there," lamented Nico Hischier. "One goal again, and we just couldn't manage it. It was a very intense game. I mean, props to Finland. Obviously they're a well-disciplined team, a well-structured team, but I don't think we gave them much. They didn't give us much. They hit one post, we hit one post. They scored. That's sports. It just sucks to be on the other side."

The Swiss had a clearly nervous start to the game. Genoni, usually unflappable and steady, made two or three unwise decisions with the puck and was lucky a goal didn’t result.

The Finns, meanwhile, skated with confidence from the drop of the puck. They had a great chance early off the rush when Anton Lundell got the puck in front to Olli Maata. Matta made a nice tip and Genoni had to be sharp on the play.

The Finns thought they had opened the scoring at 13:55, but video review clearly showed Lundell tipped the puck in with his stick well above the height of the crossbar.

The Swiss, backed by a sold-out crwod decked mostly in red, had their best chance on the final couple of shifts of the period. The had a few good whacks at the puck around the net, resulting in some wild reaction from the Finns, who incurred two minors on the same play.

That gave the Swiss a lengthy 5-on-3 to start the second. But when they came back onto the fresh ice, they couldn’t manage so much as a shot, even though they led the tournament with eleven power-play goals through the first nine games.

The Swiss nerves were still apparent, but as the game progressed they very slowly skated their way out of that hesitant play and by the end of the period they held an 8-2 shots margin and were dominating. Yet, they had nothing to show for it.

Pius Suter had the best chance to open the scoring for Switzerland. After some scrambly play in front of the Finnish goal, the puck slid to the back side to Suter, but he snapped a shot wide of the open side of the goal.

From the start of the third, it felt like overtime--next goal wins. Teams were hesitant, but Finland had the better of play. Yet the Swiss had two chances to get that elusive goal, but both times Justus Annunen was there. First, he stopped Roman Josi, who cut in and crashed the net as he tried to jam it in.

Then, Suter went in alone from close quarters, but he couldn't lift the puck over the goalie. After a regular intermission, teams skated out for a 20-minute overtime, knowing they would play until a goal was scored.

"It sucks," said Cristoph Bertschy. "We had such a great tournament. We had everything in our hands. Great fans, all two and a half weeks long, all the support in the rink and outside the rink from home, from public viewings and bars. We felt it, and we couldn't put [success] on the ice today. So it's disappointment, but we're thankful for all the support."