2018-19 National Men's U18 Team

CANADA DOWNS CZECHS TO FINISH PERFECT PRELIMS

JASON LA ROSE

UMEÅ, Sweden – Philip Tomasino (Mississauga, Ont./Niagara, OHL) had a goal and an assist in the decisive second period, and Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team erased an early deficit to beat the Czech Republic 6-2 in the preliminary-round finale Tuesday at the 2019 IIHF U18 World Championship.

The Canadians finished atop Group A with a perfect 4-0 record, and will face Latvia in the quarter-finals on Thursday (1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT).

Canada dominated the final 40 minutes, outshooting the Czechs 45-11 and scoring five unanswered goals.

Early on, though, it was the Europeans who had the advantage. Ondrej Volrab gave the Czechs the lead just 4:25 in, getting a point shot through traffic and past Canadian goaltender Nolan Maier (Yorkton, Sask./Saskatoon, WHL) on the power play, and Jan Mysak jumped on a turnover at the offensive blue-line and set up Marcel Barinka for the 2-0 goal only 92 seconds after that.

It was all Canada from there. Alex Newhook (St. John’s, N.L./Victoria, BCHL) got the Canadians on the board before the end of the opening frame, coming out of the penalty box and taking a feed from Jamieson Rees (Hamilton, Ont./Sarnia, OHL) before beating netminder Lukas Parik.

The puck never seemed to leave Canadian sticks in the second period; they outshot the Czechs 30-7 in the stanza and turned a deficit into a lead before the end of 40 minutes.

Dylan Holloway (Bragg Creek, Alta./Okotoks, AJHL) tied it less than two minutes in off a set-up from Tomasino, and Tomasino spun in the slot and beat Parik through the legs at 15:12 to put Canada ahead 3-2.

The offensive onslaught continued in the third, with three goals in three minutes.

Nathan Légaré (Montreal, Que./Baie-Comeau, QMJHL) made good on a two-man advantage at 11:51, hammering a one-timer past Parik, Rees tipped in a shot from Jordan Spence (Cornwall, P.E.I./Moncton, QMJHL) at 13:37 and captain Peyton Krebs (Okotoks, Alta./Winnipeg, WHL) finished off a tie-tac-toe passing play at 14:57 to cap the scoring.

Tomasino, Newhook, Rees and Holloway finished with a goal and an assist each, while Maier finished with 23 saves.

Canada outshot the Czechs 58-25 overall.