2001-02 National Men's Under-18 Team

April 18, 2002
Piestany, Slovakia

Piestany, Slovakia- Canada's National Under 18 Team opened the final round of the 2002 IIHF World Under 18 Hockey Championship on Thursday by losing 10-3 against a formidable US side.

The Americans carried the play early on but Canada still managed to open the scoring on a strange goal. Michaël Lambert's centring pass was deflected past US goaltender James Howard by one of his own defenceman, the goal coming at 4:03. But the USA tied it at 13:07 as Brett Sterling got in close and slid the puck under Maxime Daigneault.

And at 15:52, USA took a 2-1 lead as Zach Parise cashed on a perfectly executed 2 on 1 play. Late in the period, at 17:47, Canadian stalwart defenseman Mike Egener was given a surprising game misconduct for inadvertently hitting an official during action in Canada's zone. This left Canada with only five defenceman, with Johnny Boychuk on the sidelines with a deep leg bruise.

The goals came fast and furious in the second period as Canada scored twice but the USA responded with five goals. Jon Filewich and Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored for Canada but the US got goals from Ryan Kesler (2), Tim Wallace, Brett Sterling and Tyler Hirsch to give the USA a commanding 7-3 period through forty minutes.

Things didn't get any better for Canada in the third period, as the USA added 3 goals for a 10-3.
Canada is taking part in it's first ever World Under 18 Hockey Championship, and is made up of players born in 1984, presently not involved in the playoffs in either the CHL, university or Junior ?A? leagues. Canada takes on Finland in it's second game of the final round, on April 20th, in Piestany, Slovakia.

Game Summary