CANADA STAYS UNBEATEN AT SLEDGE TOURNAMENT BY BLANKING JAPANESE

NAGANO, Japan – Billy Bridges (Summerside, P.E.I.) scored twice for the second time in as many games and Kevin Rempel (Dundas, Ont.) added a goal and an assist as Canada’s National Sledge Team stayed perfect in its quest for gold with a 5-0 win over Japan on Sunday afternoon at Big Hat Arena.

The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was pushed back a day after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that devastated northeast Japan on Friday.

Canada jumped on the tournament hosts early, going up 2-0 before the midway point of the first period on goals by Bridges and Rempel and taking a three-goal advantage to the dressing room thanks to a power play goal from Graeme Murray (Gravenhurst, Ont.) with 14 seconds left in the opening frame.

Bridges added his second of the game in the dying minutes of the second period, giving the Canadians as many goals as the Japanese had shots (four). Canada out shot the Japanese 23-4 through the first two periods, and 32-8 overall.

With the outcome decided, Dominic Larocque (Quebec City, Que.) rounded out the scoring with 2:33 to go in the final period.

Corbin Watson (Kingsville, Ont.) stopped all eight shots he faced for the shutout. Bridges added an assist to give him a three-point game, while Marc Dorion (Bourget, Ont.) pitched in with a pair of helpers in the win.

Canada wraps up the tournament on Monday night against Norway, a game that faces off at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT on Monday in North America and will likely decide the gold medal. Due to the unscheduled off day on Saturday, the gold medal game will now be decided by the final round robin standings.

Penalties:
   04:27 JPN 55 Kazuhiro Takahashi (Holding)
   13:11 JPN 29 Tomohiko Maruo (Roughing)

Penalties:
   04:19 CAN 29 Graeme Murray (Holding)
   10:26 JPN 32 Daisuke Uehara (Holding)
   14:56 JPN 13 Mamoru Yoshikawa (Interference)

Penalties:
   02:47 JPN 27 Mikio Annaka (Holding)
   03:22 CAN 4 Derek Whitson (Teeing)