With one game still to play, the United States have booked their spot in Saturday’s championship final for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge thanks to the fifth victory in as many tries. All that remains to be seen is which team will oppose them for the gold medal, with Finland currently holding the inside track as both teams were victorious on Tuesday. The third game saw Canada White win in overtime.
The seven-team, 10-day tournament is being co-hosted by Langley Events Centre and Delta’s Sungod Centre and wraps up on Saturday, November 12.
Finland 6 Sweden 3 (Langley Events Centre)
Five different players found the back of the net as Finland doubled up their Nordic neighbours, Sweden 6-3, improving to 3-1 and nine points with two games remaining in preliminary round play. Sweden fell to 2-2 and with one of their victories coming in overtime, five points.
“Sweden is always a rival for us, so it is always extra special against them,” said Finland coach Marko Kauppinen.
The Finns had defeated Czechia 3-1 the night before, but the coach wasn’t overly pleased with his team’s performance, despite the fact they had earned all three points. Tuesday’s matinee was a much better overall game and performance and puts the team in second place and with two games remaining, in great position to earn a place in Saturday’s championship final.
Finland plays Canada Red and Canada White to close the preliminary round and likely needs just one victory to finish top two.
Tuesday’s game saw three goals in a span of 1:41 with Joona Saarelainen and Julius Miettinin scoring for Finland, with Sweden’s Karl Sterner responding in between those two tallies. Emil Hemming put Finland ahead 3-1 ahead of the first intermission and they led 5-2 after 40 minutes with Akseli Pulkkanen and Roope Vesterinen scoring for the Finns while Anton Olsson responded for the Swedes.
Oscar Davidsson did make it 5-3 with half a period to play before Vesterinen potted his second of the game. Petteri Rimpinen made 26 saves for Finland while Sweden’s Hugo Laring finished with 33 saves as his team was outshot 39-26.
Pulkkanen (Finland) and Victor Eklund (Sweden) were the respective Players of the Game.
Canada White 6 Czechia 5 (OT) (Langley Events Centre)
Henry Mews went from the penalty box to being the overtime hero as 13 seconds after returning the ice, the Canada White captain wired home the winner in a 6-5 win over Czechia.
“That’s why he’s the captain. He’s a leader. He has been playing hard and a lot of minutes. It wasn’t a bad penalty, but in the end, it is how you respond and he responded with that goal,” said Canada White coach Bruce Richardson.
It gives Canada White a 1-2-1 record and three points with two preliminary round games remaining while Czechia fell to 0-3-1 and one point.
Richardson was disappointed with his team’s effort for much of the contest as they fell behind 2-1 and then blew a 4-2 lead in the second period.
“We had a chance to survive and still be in the medal round, and I don’t think that everyone showed up. We wanted to approach this like a Game 7. Some of the guys did, but some of the guys did not. We have to give credit to the other team — they didn’t want to go home without a fight. They played really hard and a structured game and on the other side, I thought we were a little bit casual in the way we played,” he said.
All four goaltenders saw action in the game with David Egorov stopped 12 of 13 shots after entering the game following Czechia’s fourth goal. Madden Mulawka had nine saves on 13 shots. Czechia’s Adam Ebenstreit played the first period, also making nine saves on 13 shots with Jakub Milota entering the game for the second period and stopping 13 of 15 shots.
Canada White’s offence came courtesy of Jack Van Volsen, Cayden Lindstrom, Ryder Ritchie, Spencer Gill, Bill Zonnon and then Mews’ overtime winner.
Ondrej Kos led Czechia with a goal and two helpers and Jiri Klima had three assists. Adam Jiricek (one goal, one assist), Adam Benak, Lukas Kral and Adam Jecho had the other goals.
Éliot L’Italien (Canada White) and Jakub Fibigr (Czechia) were their teams’ respective Players of the Game.
United States 6 Canada Black 1 (Sungod Arena)
The US team continued to roll, tacking on another six goals – they now have 31 in five games – in a dominant 6-1 victory over Canada Black to improve to 5-0 and book a spot in Saturday’s championship final. Canada Black sits in third place (2-2-1, seven points) but only has one game remaining while the team they are chasing for the second spot in the gold-medal game (Finland) has a two-point lead and two games still to play.
The Americans were ahead 2-0 after one period and 4-0 through 40 minutes with Kamil Bednarik (short-handed), Teddy Stiga, James Hagens and Lucas Van Vliet each finding the back of the net. Thomas Desruisseaux would get Canada Black on the board with just over 13 minutes to play but Brodie Ziemer and Hagens tacked on two more US goals.
“We started a little bit slow, a little sluggish, a little bit individualistic. We talked about that between periods and the second and the third we found ourselves and played much better hockey,” said American coach Nick Fohr, also pointing out the fact that they were facing a depleted Canada Black roster, which factored into the one-sided final score.
“We were able to utilize all our guys, and, in the end, you could see that they were getting tired and we were able to kind of take over the game in the second and the third,” he said.
Nick Kempf made 22 saves for the US while Ryerson Leenders finished with 25 saves on 31 shots.
Hagens – who leads the tournament in scoring with 14 points – was named the Player of the Game, while Desruisseaux earned the honour for Canada Black.
Day 7 schedule
Two games are on tap, both of which begin at 7:00pm. Czechia will face Sweden at Langley Events Centre while Finland battles Canada Red at Sungod Arena. Canada Red needs a victory to keep Finland from clinching second place.
Click here to purchase tickets
Standings
Team GP W OTW L OTL PTS
United States 5 5 0 0 0 15
Finland 4 3 0 1 0 9
Canada Black 5 2 0 2 1 7
Sweden 4 1 1 2 0 5
Canada Red 4 1 1 2 0 5
Canada White 4 0 1 2 1 3
Czechia 4 0 0 3 1 1
Photos courtesy of Langley Events Centre
