Canada Wins 14th Spengler Cup Title

With a 4-2 victory over NLA club Lugano on Saturday, Team Canada has won the 90th edition of the Spengler Cup.

Despite eventually losing, Lugano needed just 31 seconds to find the back of the net first. With the first real scoring chance of the game on his stick, Dario Bugler took a pass from Patrik Zackrisson and fired the shot past former World Junior champion goaltender Zach Fucale to get the contest started in the right direction for Lugano.

Canada, however, would take full control after that. At 6:03, Chay Genoway finished off a rebound at the side of the net off of a chance from Nick Spaling to get Canada on the board for the first time.

Canada would eventually take the lead 59 seconds into the second period, an advantage they would never give back. A great pass from Jacob Micflikier to Marc-Antoine Pouliot, who would send one past Elvis Merzlikins to put Canada in the lead.

Merzlikins was the star for Lugano, making some tough stops and keeping his team in the battle throughout. But a shorthanded goal just two minutes later by Cory Emmerton on an end-to-end rush really put a damper on the team's chances, as Canada began to really take control of the game at that point.

With 37:17 complete in the second, Canada would grab another one to finish off the period. This time, Mason Raymond did a good job of chasing down a giveaway behind the Canadian net before setting up Andrew Ebbett in front of the net, with Ebbett beating Merzlikins on the one-timer to make it 4-1 Canada.

Lugano elected to finish the game with Stefan Muller in net for the remainder of the game, despite a strong effort by Merzlikins. Maybe it sparked a new light in Lugano's offense, as the Swiss squad would score on the power play at the 4:08 mark of the period. Burgler would get credit for another goal after fending of a Canadian defenseman and driving hard to the net, beating Fucale with a quick wrister to bring Lugano within two. It wouldn't matter in the end, however, as Nick Spaling would find the empty net with 17 seconds left to lead Canada to the 2016 Spengler Cup championship.

With the championship, Team Canada has now won 14 tournament titles in the 90-year history of the Spengler Cup, including last years against Lugano and in 2012 with a list of current NHL stars. 

Follow me on Twitter, @StevenEllisNHL.

Photo from EQ Images / Melanie Duchene

Tweets by @eurohockey