Jason La Rose
Four wins down, one to go for Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, which – for the second year in a row – faces off against Czechia in the gold medal game at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Last Game
Canada moved into another gold medal game by beating the United States 5-1 in Friday’s late semifinal. Jack Ivankovic was terrific in a 28-save performance, and five different players – Cameron Schmidt, Alex Huang, Cole Reschny, Luca Romano and Gavin McKenna – scored goals as the Canadians beat their North American neighbours in the semis for the second year in a row.
The Czechs booked their place in the final with a 5-1 semifinal win over Sweden. Vit Zahejsky led the charge with a two goals and an assist, his first capping off a three-goals-in-11-minutes stretch that put Czechia in control. Adam Benak added a goal and an assist, while Ondrej Stebetek finished with 18 saves.
Last Meeting
The teams met a week ago in pre-tournament play, with the Czechs earning a 6-4 win. Cameron Schmidt had a goal and an assist to pace the Canadians, but two Czechia goals in a span of 10 seconds with less than seven minutes to go proved to be the difference.
As mentioned, this gold medal game is a rematch of the 2023 final, an overtime thriller that ended in a 3-2 Canadian victory. After the Czechs forced extra time with just 4:47 left, Malcolm Spence provided the heroics for Canada, scoring with seven seconds left in the overtime period to give Canada a 24th summer U18 gold.
What to Watch
If Friday’s win – and the tournament as a whole – has shown us anything, it’s how deep the Canadian lineup truly is. Every night, it seems as if someone new is stepping up to provide offence. Through four games, 17 of 20 Canadian skaters have at least a point, six are averaging at least a point a game and no one has scored more than three goals (Reschny, McKenna, Romano, Schmidt and Émile Guité have all reached that mark). The top defensive pairing of Huang and Matthew Schaefer has combined for 10 points, the ‘D’ corps as a whole has been terrific – allowing only three goals in four games – and Ivankovic has been lights out with a 0.67 goals-against average and .973 save percentage.
All eyes on Benak. After co-leading the tournament in scoring a year ago as an underager, the 5-foot-7 forward has been as good as advertised in Edmonton. His goal and assist against the Swedes gives him 10 points (4-6—10) in four games – the same number he had in 2023 and just one back of Swedish sniper Viktor Klingsell for the tournament lead. Benak has found the scoresheet in every game, highlighted by a hat trick and two helpers in a win over Germany on Tuesday. He’ll ply his trade in North America this season, joining the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms after producing a point-per-game (8-21—29 in 29 games) with HC Plzen in the Czech U20 league last year.
A Look Back
The Canadians and Czechs have been frequent foes in summer under-18 competition, facing off 24 times dating back to 1997 (Canada has won 20 of those 24).
That list includes six gold medal game meetings; in addition to last year’s win, the Canadians prevailed in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014 and 2017 (led by a goal and two assists from 2022 Olympian Jack McBain).
All-time record: Canada leads 20-2-2 (1-0 in OT/SO) Canada goals: 109 Czechia goals: 45