Finland beat hosts Switzerland 1–0 in overtime to win the 2026 World Championship. The golden goal, and how to feel hockey-mad Finland for yourself.
Sixty minutes, no goals. Then, 10 minutes and 42 seconds into overtime, in a sold-out Zurich
arena full of red-and-white home fans waiting to erupt, Konsta Helenius
made the whole building go quiet and a country 2,000 km north go absolutely wild.
Finland 1, Switzerland 0. World champions again.
It was the most Finnish way imaginable to win a hockey game: shut the door for sixty minutes,
outlast the hosts, and settle it with one clean strike when it mattered. We're a Lapland
travel newsroom, not a sports desk, so the question we actually get after a night like this
is whether the tournament comes to Finland next.
Final: Finland 1–0 Switzerland, after overtime , 2026 IIHF World Championship gold-medal game, Zurich, 31 May 2026.
The golden goal: Konsta Helenius, 10:42 into OT, assisted by Anton Lundell and Mikko Lehtonen.
Scoreless regulation: 0–0 through all three periods, a goaltending and defensive masterclass on both sides.
Finland's first title since 2022 (when they won gold on home ice in Tampere).
Next year? The 2027 Worlds are in Germany (Düsseldorf & Mannheim, 13–30 May 2027), and 2028 goes to France (Paris & Lyon). Neither is Finland. More on that below.
Gold-medal games are rarely shoot-outs, and this one was a wall against a wall. Switzerland,
playing at home in front of their own crowd, threw everything at a Finnish side that simply
refused to break. Regulation ended 0–0. Then in the extra period Lundell and Lehtonen worked
it to Helenius, and that was the tournament. One goal, one champion.
"Is the tournament in Finland next year?"
Short answer: no, and not the year after either. The
2027 IIHF World Championship will be in Germany , split between Düsseldorf's
PSD Bank Dome and Mannheim's SAP Arena, from 13 to 30 May 2027. The 2028 tournament goes to
Paris and Lyon. So if you were waiting to pair a Finland trip with the Worlds on home ice,
If what you wanted was to watch hockey in Finland, that still works, it just isn't a
tournament trip. Liiga, the domestic league, runs from September through the spring playoffs,
and a regular-season ticket costs a fraction of a Worlds one.
If the medal made you curious about Finland
Lapland is the part of the country most visitors never reach, and the part where winter runs
The post-game sauna is real. In Lapland you do the proper version, a
wood-heated lakeside sauna, then straight into the lake (or a hole in the ice in winter).
It's where Finns actually celebrate, commiserate and decompress.
Two seasons, both worth it. Right now it's the
24-hour daylight, hiking, lakes. Come winter, it's aurora, huskies and snow.
Catch a game while you're here. Finland's top league (Liiga) runs through
winter; Rovaniemi and the southern hub cities all have rinks. Pair a match with a few days
in the fells and you've got the full Finnish winter.
For one night the whole country is awake and loud, from Helsinki's Kauppatori to the smallest
village in Lapland. However you celebrate, the welcome up north is the same in every season.
Start with the nature pillar for hiking and national parks, the
things-to-do guide for activities by season, or our