2005-06 National Men's Under-18 Team

Canada 2 - Sweden 2

IIHF World Men's Under-18 Championship
Exhibition
Sundayday, April 9, 2006
16:00 (local)
Tryinge, SWE

TYRINGE, SWEDEN -- Only 24 hours after arriving in Sweden, Canada’s 2006 Under 18 World Championship team played its first of two pre-competition games, tying Sweden 2-2 on Sunday.

Head Coach Greg Gilbert started Jonathan Bernier (Laval, QC – Lewiston, QMJHL) in goal, while Sweden had Stefan Ridderwall in net.

Canada and Sweden played to a scoreless first period with Canada whistled for four penalties and Sweden with two. Canada edged Sweden in shot on goal in the first period by a 13 to 12 margin.

Canada scored the first goal of the game at 9:54 of the second period, when Stefan Chaput (Montreal, QC – Lewiston, QMJHL) drove down the left wing and took a shot on goal, while two Belleville Bulls battled in front of the net, Matt Beleskey (Midhurst, ON – Belleville, OHL) and Shawn Matthias (Mississauga, ON), and Matthias put a rebound past Ridderwall. Sweden replied less than a minute later when Tony Lagertrom made the score 1-1 and remained that way after two periods of play.

Sweden went up 2-1 mid way through the third period, when Patrik Berglund scored on a 2 on 1 at 10:46. Canada replied at 16:58 to tie the game at 2-2, when Cory Emmerton (St. Thomas, ON – Kingston, OHL) scored a one-timer on the power play, taking a pass from Ben Shutron (Orleans, ON – Kingston, OHL). Hugo Charpentier (Hull, QC – Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL) also assisted on Emmerton’s goal.

Bernier stopped 38 of 40 shots, while Ridderwall made 29 saves for Sweden. Matthias was named player of the game for Canada.

Canada will take on Germany on Monday night, and will then travel to Halmstad and prepare for its opening game of the Championship on Wednesday versus Slovakia.