Helenius scores overtime gold as Finland wins world title
Konsta Helenius and Noah Steen turned World Championship overtime into an AHL showcase, delivering gold for Finland and Norway's first men’s medal.
Two AHL-linked forwards spent the same Sunday turning overtime into their own spotlight, and the message for Rochester and Syracuse was impossible to miss: Konsta Helenius and Noah Steen did not just survive the World Championship pressure, they owned it.
Helenius delivered the biggest swing of the day, slipping the golden goal past Leonardo Genoni at 10:42 of overtime to lift Finland to a 1-0 win over Switzerland in Zurich. The finish came at 70:42 of game time and capped a final that stayed scoreless through regulation, making it the second straight gold-medal game to go to overtime with a 0-0 score. Finland finished with its first world title since 2022 and its third in the last seven tournaments, and Justus Annunen backed it with 22 saves. For Helenius, the moment added international weight to an AHL season that already looked like a breakthrough, with 63 points in 63 games for Rochester, good for a tie for ninth in AHL scoring. He also won the CCM Fastest Skater event at the AHL All-Star Skills Competition in February with a 13.770-second sprint, then later logged his first NHL goal and two assists in a 5-3 Buffalo win over Nashville on Jan. 20.
That is the kind of resume that changes how an organization views a 20-year-old center. Helenius, the 14th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by Buffalo, moved from Rochester to the Sabres and even into Stanley Cup Playoff duty, then finished his season by scoring the goal that decided a world title. For AHL fans, it was a clean snapshot of progression: production in the league, speed at the All-Star stage, and now a clinching goal against a host nation in a medal game.
Steen produced a different kind of jolt, but the significance was just as sharp. The Syracuse Crunch forward scored 3:32 into overtime to give Norway a 3-2 bronze-medal victory over Canada, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with Sander Hurrod by beating Jet Greaves glove-side. IIHF called it one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history, and Norway earned its first medal ever at the men’s world championship. Steen, a 2024 seventh-round pick by Tampa Bay, had only just made his North American debut with Syracuse, playing five regular-season games and two Calder Cup Playoff contests after a season in Sweden’s SHL.
Put together, the two overtime winners did more than decorate a tournament bracket. They gave AHL clubs and NHL organizations a clear reason to recalibrate expectations, because both players showed they can tilt games when the margin is gone and the stage is biggest.
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