BUDAPEST, HUN – Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team kicked off its pre-tournament schedule ahead of the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup with a 7-1 victory over Hungary’s national men’s under-20 team on Thursday.
- Cayden Linstrom (Chetwynd, BC/Medicine Hat, WHL) led the offence with two goals and two assists.
- Zayne Parekh (Nobleton, ON/Saginaw, OHL) and Berkly Catton (Saskatoon, SK/Spokane, WHL) each recorded two assists.
- Charlie Elick (Calgary, AB/Brandon, WHL) opened the scoring 29 seconds into the game.
- Malcolm Spence (Mississauga, ON/Erie, OHL), Justin Poirier (Valleyfield, QC/Baie-Comeau, LHJMQ), Sam Dickinson (Toronto, ON/London, OHL) and Carson Wetsch (North Vancouver, BC/Calgary, WHL) rounded out the scoring.
- Cole Beaudoin (Kanata, ON/Barrie, OHL) and Porter Martone (Peterborough, ON/Mississauga, OHL) added an assist apiece.
- Carter George (Thunder Bay, ON/Owen Sound, OHL) made 11 saves in the first period, Ryerson Leenders (Nantocoke, ON/Mississauga, OHL) stopped nine of the 10 in the second and Gabriel D’Aigle (Sorel-Tracy, QC/Victoriaville, LHJMQ) made five saves in the final frame.
- Canada outshot Hungary 47-26.
Next Game:
Canada vs. Czechia (pre-tournament) – Saturday, July 29 (12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT)
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast all Team Canada games and select playoff-round games during the tournament; please check local listings for details.
Quotes:
“I thought our energy was excellent; early on we had some guys sacrifice and make some huge blocks. Our guys are getting comfortable with each other. We have some power-play guys that are getting comfortable with each other and that is the whole point with these games – to mix and match and find some chemistry as fast as we can.”
– Head coach Alan Letang (Renfrew, ON/Sarnia, OHL) on building chemistry.
“We haven’t played a game in a while, so at the start we were pretty rusty. We were still blocking shots, doing the right things and in the third period we showed how we can play. This was a good start for us as a group; Hungary worked hard against us and pushed us to be better.”
– Lindstrom on coming together as a team.
“I thought the game went really well as a first game as a team. It took us a while to get it together, but we broke through and played together until the end. We take this game, take the learning points from the video, learn from our mistakes and get better heading into the tournament.”
– Elick on looking toward the start of the tournament.
For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow through social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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