The 33-year-old netted twice towards the end of the third period on power plays to break a 3-3 draw and propel the US to a 6-3 win at the CAA Centre before a crowd of 4,635.

Ill-discipline saw the hosts concede two quick penalties to give the Americans a two-player advantage for 49 seconds which proved to be hugely costly.

Knight scored twice within 27 seconds inside the final four minutes as she recorded her 101st career point in the Championship.

The result marked her ninth gold medal, levelling Canada's Danielle Goyette for the most of all time, and 13th career medal which matched the leading total of Goyette's compatriot Hayley Wickenheiser.

Cayla Barnes scored an open goal with less than two minutes remaining to put the nail in the Canadian coffin.

The win ends Canada's three golds in a row at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships in Calgary and Herning, respectively, and last year's Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

"We got gold and hopefully we can keep it going," said US defender Megan Keller after a match which saw these two sides meet for the 21st time in 22 finals of this event.

"It's a huge honour, and we just continue to get better and better each tournament, each game, each camp.

"We have a great programme, and it's not even everybody that's just here.

"It's everybody who's in Blaine; it's everybody who's in college, postgrads.

"We have a huge group, and we continue to push each other, challenge each other.

"The sky's the limit for this group."

The match was the first time that Canadian goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens lost a senior match.

Going into the game she had a win-loss record of 16-0 at the World Championship and 6-0 at the Olympics.

Her team-mate Sarah Filier was named as the tournament's most valuable player.

Prior to the final, the Czech Republic beat Switzerland 3-2 to clinch the bronze medal and Finland downed Sweden 3-1 to secure a fifth-place finish.