Canada West 7, Slovakia 3 – Rath Eastlink Community Centre
- Jack Silverberg (Sherwood Park, AB/Okotoks, AJHL) led Canada West to its first victory with 2 goals and 2 assists.
- Layne Loomer (Lethbridge, AB/Blackfalds, AJHL) and Matthew Van Blaricom (Southey, SK/Humboldt, SJHL) each had a goal and an assist.
- Erick Roest (Lethbridge, AB/Sherwood Park, AJHL) made 24 saves for the victory.
Canada East 5, Sweden 0 – Rath Eastlink Community Centre
- Dylan Edwards (Toronto, ON/Toronto, OJHL) scored twice as Canada East remains perfect in preliminary round play.
- Tao Artichuk (Ajax, ON/Trenton, OJHL) and Ben Pickell (Courtice, ON/Pickering, OJHL) each recorded a goal and an assist.
- Dawson Labre (Les Cèdres, QC/Smiths Falls, CCHL) had a 37 save shutout.
The next game, where Canada West will face off against the United States, will take place on Thursday, December 14 at 7:30PM AT.
“This one feels good. You could see guys showing some confidence tonight that we haven’t had yet. I thought Erick (Roest) was great in net… We had a pretty hard practice yesterday, tried to change some things up and take the brain out of the game and focus on just playing and it seemed to resonate with the guys. This is a step in the right direction here, it’s good to see the boys smiling and happy in the room, that’s what this tournament is about is making lifelong memories,” shared Canada West head coach Scott Barney on the first win of the tournament.
“It was good to get a win. The boys are finally rolling. You could see the team playing with confidence tonight. I thought our energy was high, our legs were going, and we had our feet under us. This win is huge for us as we get ready to play the United States tomorrow,” said Silverberg on how this win affects the team morale.
“We scored on our opportunities… that was the difference tonight. We had some things to clean up coming into this one, but our goalie was calm, cool and collected in the net and that is all you can ask for. Our compete level has to be real high to win a tournament like this and I like where we are at in that regard, we’re playing hard and we’re coming together as a team,” shared Canada East head coach Billy McGuigan (Summerside, PE/Summerside, MHL) on the win.
“We trust him with our life right now. He is playing unbelievable and he is winning us games. We know that he’s back there so it allows us to jump into the rush and maybe take some risks that we shouldn’t, but we know that he’s there and he’s standing tall. Its so much fun to play in front of him right now,” shared Edwards on the performance of his goaltender.
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada will broadcast the bronze and gold medal games from the Rath Eastlink Community Centre in Truro; please check local listings for details.
All preliminary-round games are livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca.
For more information on the 2023 World Junior A Hockey Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow through social media on Facebook and X.
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