It was already 2-0 for the Americans midway through the first period. The silence of the crowd gathered in Halifax spoke volumes. Canada’s young players were playing nervously. The most pessimistic fans might already be resigned to a bronze medal game against Sweden on Thursday.
But you should never bet against a team that has a young man named Connor Bedard in its ranks. The goal he scored in the ninth minute of the first period, after being forgotten on the edge of the opposing net, changed the course of this one-sided encounter so far.
Canada scored five unanswered goals after Bedard’s and won 6-2 to advance to the final against Czechia on Thursday. The future first overall pick of the next NHL draft also added an assist on the goal of Joshua Roy, a hope of the Canadian. This line, completed by Logan Stankoven, participated in three of Canada’s first four goals.
Roy, drafted only in the fifth round by the CH, even though he had been the first overall pick in the QMJHL two years earlier, played a very inspired match.
PHOTO DARREN CALABRESE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Joshua Roy had a strong game for Canada.
We remember less his four points, including two secondary assists, than his effective work along the ramps and in numerical inferiority, and this goal succeeded at a critical moment to give his team a two-goal lead in the second period. He also scored the insurance goal in an empty net by stealing the puck from the Americans’ number one defenseman, Luke Hughes, very talented, but nonchalant as possible. A shorthanded game, please!
It will also be necessary to remember this decision of the coaches of the Canadian team to contest an American goal in the eighth minute of the second period. That goal would have allowed the United States to tie the game 3-3, but interference was claimed against the Canadian goaltender. The gesture seemed subtle, but not in the eyes of the Canada bench, which prevailed.
Another goal was contested early in the third period and the referees again ruled in favor of the host country; the goaltender had clearly been pushed with the stick to help the puck slide behind him.
Milic stands up, Beck reveals himself
This goalkeeper, Thomas Milic, of Seattle, in the Western Junior League, confined to an auxiliary role at the opening of the tournament, but holder from the second game, never drafted at almost 20 years old, was smoking . His saves weren’t always conventional, but he got his club out of trouble on several occasions. He stopped 43 of 45 pucks thrown his way.
PHOTO DARREN CALABRESE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canadian goalkeeper Thomas Milic makes an unlikely save at the expense of the American formation in the first period.
Urgently recalled on the eve of the quarter-finals due to an injury suffered by Colton Dach – Kirby’s brother – Owen Beck, the Canadiens’ early second-round pick – 33e overall – and brilliant during training camp last September, played regularly on the fourth line after being limited to two appearances against Slovakia.
Beck helped wake up 17-year-old Adam Fantilli, an eventual pick in the top 5 of the 2023 NHL Draft, and he even offered himself a play that allowed his team to bury the Americans in the middle of the game, amassing his first point of the tournament in the process.
Where are Wright and Guenther?
Canada will have managed to overtake the United States without the contribution of Shane Wright, whose line was once again held in check. Wright and his right wing Dylan Guenther have played games in the National Hockey League this season.
PHOTO DARREN CALABRESE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Shane Wright has just six points after six games since the start of the tournament.
After a disastrous first period, Wright and his partners recovered, without however producing. The Seattle Kraken’s fourth overall pick therefore has six points after six games, half of them against Germany and Austria, compared to 12 for American Logan Cooley, chosen one rank ahead of him by the Arizona Coyotes. . Bedard now has 23 points after 6 games. Promoted to a line with Bedard after Game 2, Joshua Roy took his total to ten points in six games.
But Wright still has one more – and more important – game to play hero, and these World Junior Championships don’t necessarily define a career.
Another Canadian prospect, American defender Lane Hutson, played a good game in a secondary role, but not enough in 16:21 and without power play minutes to make a difference.
Against the Czech Republic in the final, Canada will want to avenge their failure in the opening match. The dream scenario is written, now it’s time to act it out.