Canada West secured a semifinal spot at the World Jr. A Challenge
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Despite its first loss in the World Junior A Challenge on Thursday night, Canada West remained poised Friday afternoon to stay atop the standings heading into this weekend’s semifinals and medal games.
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Sweden handed Canada West its first defeat, a 5-3 finish in the WJAC’s only game Thursday at the Cornwall Civic Complex. Coming into the game, Canada West was the only undefeated team in the five-team tournament, and in this game, its special teams made the difference.
Three of Sweden’s goals on the night came on the power play, with another short play.
Canada West’s Conyr Hellyer opened the game’s scoring at 1:41 of the first, off assists from Sam Huck and Sam Court.
That Swedish short-handed goal came barely a few minutes later, after Tom Willander was sent off for holding. Zeb Forsfjäll scored Sweden’s opening salvo while on the penalty at 3:38. The Swedes would go up with their only even goal of the night, by Axél Hurtig, with assists to Jacob Sagadin and Elliott Ståhlberg, at 9:18.
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It would be 3-2 Sweden when the Olympia resurfacer hit the ice in Ed Lumley Arena for the first break. Canada West’s Matteo Giampa scored at 13:36, with a power-play goal against Sweden’s Felix Unger Sörum at 15:25.
Sweden scored the only two goals of the second period, both power play efforts, with Otto Stenberg netting one at 3:20 and Forsfjäll his second of the night at 4:34. Aiden Fink would score the only goal of the third for Canada West at 11:03.
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Western Canada, USA Makes It Look “Eazy” At World Jr. A Challenge in Cornwall
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The Stanley Cup dropped out of the World Junior A Challenge in Cornwall on Saturday
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Canada West off to 2-0 start at World Junior A Challenge in Cornwall
When this article was written, Friday’s match was underway at 2:00 p.m., and the USA already had a 5-0 lead over Latvia in the third period – if the team were to pull off a win, it would put Eastern Canada and Sweden in must-win situations for their Friday night game scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. 19.00. Without that victory Friday night, Latvia would have more game points than the loser of the final preliminary round and advance to the semifinals on Saturday.
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Regardless of the outcome on Friday, Canada West and the USA advance to the semi-finals on Saturday. Assuming a Latvian loss Friday afternoon, Sweden would not need a win against Canada East Friday night to land among the tournament’s top four.
The final rankings of teams were not complete until after Friday night’s game, which ended well past publication deadlines.
Saturday’s semifinals are scheduled for 2 and 7 p.m., with the winners advancing to the gold medal game on Sunday at 5 p.m. and the losers playing in the bronze medal game at 1 p.m. A reminder that the Stanley Cup will be a premiere attraction in the WBG – Cornwall Square Fan Zone in the Civic Center Lounges, available to all those attending the semi-finals from 12:00 PM until the end of the second period of the 2:00 PM game and from 5:00 PM until the end of the second period of the 7. pm games.
Both medal matches will be broadcast Sunday on TSN in English and RDS in French.