The team lost 3 games in regulation to start the tournament, the first Canadian team in tournament history to do so,[16] and needed to 10 points over the final 4 round robin games to make the playoff round. Winning the tiebreaker over Kazakhstan, Canada qualified for the playoff round as the lowest seed and managed wins over Russia and the United States before playing Finland for a rematch of the 2019 tournament in the gold medal game. Nick Paul's goal won the game for Canada in overtime, despite the Finns having either led or been tied the entire game, capping off a most unlikely Canadian IIHF men's gold.