VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Michael Blunden scored two power-play goals and Justin Pogge stopped 35 shots for his third shutout of the world junior championships, leading Canada to a 5-0 victory over Russia in the finals Thursday night.

Blake Comeau, Steve Downie and Kyle Chipchura also scored as Canada won consecutive championships for the first time since winning five straight between 1993-97.

“We came out and played our game,” Pogge said. “We’re in Canada, the gold stays here in Canada.”

Earlier in the day, Lauri Tukonen score the tiebreaking goal at 13:20 of the third period, and Finland won the bronze medal with a 4-2 victory over the United States.

Canadian coach Brent Sutter improved to 12-0 in the world junior championship, and is the winningest Canadian coach in the history of this tournament.

His philosophy of an aggressive defence, hard work and attention to detail has proved successful, as Canada gave up only six goals in six games – just one at even-strength. The Canadians worked harder and were more physical around the Russian net than their opponents were in defending it. Canada also had two power-play goals on seven chances, and held Russia to 0-for-6.

“We just wanted to keep things simple and keep them off the scoreboard as best we could and we did it pretty well,” said defenseman Ryan Parent said. Russia outshot Canada 15-8 in the first period, but trailed 2-0. Comeau opened the scoring 17:13 into the game, and Downie made it 2-0 less than 2 minutes later.

Replays in the opening minutes of the second period showed the puck getting across the goal line behind Pogge at one point. The Russians had a long discussion with American referee Brian Thul, but it was not counted.

Blunden scored his goals 2:42 apart in the second half of the second period, and Chipchura capped the scoring at 17:15 of the third.

Highly touted with nine first-round NHL draft picks, the U.S. was serenaded with chants of “over-rated, over-rated” while the jubilant Finns threw helmets, sticks and gloves in the air in celebration.

“We needed better production from our players in 5-on-5 play,” American coach Walk Kyle said. “Going in there were a lot of expectations for our team (but) there is no favorite going in.”

Jesse Joensuu scored twice and Tuukka Rask stopped 37 shots to lead Finland.

“It means a lot,” Tukonen said. “Finland doesn’t have that many medals from hockey. We just worked harder. We wanted more to win the game and now we got our offensive game lots better.”

American forward Bobby Ryan opened the scoring by knocking in his own rebound at 12:11 of the first period.

After Jari Sailio tied the score at 13:32 of the second, Finland took a 2-1 about 11/2 minutes later when Joensuu’s first goal of the championships survived a video review. American goalie Cory Schneider served up a generous rebound that hit the Finn as he went to the net.

Jack Johnson, booed every time he touched the puck for decking Canada’s Steve Downie on New Year’s Eve, tied the score with power-play goal 11:03 into the third period.

AP-ES-01-05-06 2208EST