The 23-year-old forward on Canada’s national sledge hockey team celebrated his first world championship win after beating Norway in a nail-biting final round, that Canada secured with a marker only nine seconds before the buzzer, on Saturday.

Speaking from Ottawa where he is finishing up the school year at Algonquin College, Murray said Team Canada was undefeated in the whirlwind week of the 2008 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship in Marlborough, Massachusetts where the schedule catered to the team playing progressively harder as the games unfolded.

In round-robin play, Canada shut out Italy 11-0, with Murray recording one of the goals. Canada beat Germany the next day 6-3.

Tuesday the team returned to the ice to take on Japan, where Murray scored the first of three goals that helped Canada to a 3-1 win.

Wednesday saw the top-seeded Canadians shut out their American counterpart 3-0 before playing two straight games against Norway, including the gold-medal match.

“The first game we won 5-1 and there were rumours that Norway was holding back and giving us some false hope because they’re usually pretty close games,” Murray said in a telephone interview Monday. “There were rumours their best player wasn’t going to play the final game and they were going to let us think we were going away with it when they were going to come out harder.”

He said the final game against Norway was excellent but “not pretty” to watch.

Canada dominated the first period taking a 1-0 lead, but lost Billy Bridges to a penalty that cost him the rest of the game.

“Everyone was pretty down about that and we really had to juggle the lineup,” said Murray, noting Canada undoubtedly outplayed Nor­way five-on-five. “It gave a boost to Norway to see one of our best players go down. We played most of the second period short-handed and Norway got a goal on us five-on-three.”

With the scored tied 2-2, Murray said he was “waiting for it,” the five-on-five opportunity for Canada to seize victory.

“We played a tournament against Norway in Kelowna that we won in OT, but looking out onto the ice I said to myself ‘we’re not going to OT today’,” he said. “I could see Norway honestly believed they were going to win the game. But I could see more determination from our guys and that they weren’t going to let them win.”

Murray’s teammate Greg Westlake scored the winning goal with less than 10 seconds left on the clock and Canada claimed its first world championship since 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“It made it so much more worthwhile to win it the way we did,” said Murray. “It meant a lot to everybody.”

Watching the final game and the players receive their medals also meant a lot to the large contingent of about 70 to 80 Canucks who made the trip to Massachusetts for the week.

Murray’s mother, three sisters, grandparents and aunt’s family all wore red and white and cheered the team on from the stands.

“The support was just amazing from the number of people who watched us in the stands and the many e-mails that were sent through the Hockey Canada website,” Murray said. “Every day coach would hang them in the change room, but said he was going to start to hang them in my locker because 90 per cent were directed to me. Some were from people I hadn’t spoken to in years and I was really happy to see them and have that support.”

This is the second gold medal and championship ring for Murray, after winning gold against Norway in the 2006 Paralympics Games in Torino, Italy.

Murray plans to finish up the school year in Ottawa and continue to prepare for the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, including another World Championship next March that will also determine the team’s world standing for the Vancouver Games.