LANDSHUT, Germany - Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team opened up defence of its gold medal at the 2022 IIHF U18 World Championship with an 8-3 loss to the United States in the 17th meeting between the North American rivals.
• Connor Bedard (North Vancouver, B.C./Regina, WHL) led the way with a goal and an assist. • Mathew Ward (Kamloops, B.C./Swift Current, WHL) scored on a second-period penalty shot. • Matthew Wood (Nanaimo, B.C./Victoria, BCHL) scored Canada’s other goal. • Nick Moldenhauer (Mississauga, Ont./Chicago, USHL) and Owen Pickering (St. Adolphe, Man./Swift Current, WHL) chipped in with an assist each. • Reid Dyck (Winkler, Man./Swift Current, WHL) made 43 saves. • The U.S. outshot Canada 51-30.
Next Game: Canada vs. Germany – Sunday, April 24 (1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT)
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast 13 games throughout the tournament, including all Team Canada preliminary-round games, four quarterfinals, both semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.
Quotes: “[The U.S. team has] been together for two years and it shows. They know their systems and they know how to play. For us, we just want to get better every day that we go through this tournament and be peaking when we hit that quarterfinal game. The biggest positive for me was our guys competed the whole time, it didn’t matter what the score was and I thought that was huge. When you do that [no matter the score], it goes real good in our books.” - Head coach Nolan Baumgartner (Calgary, Alta.) on his assessment of the game
“It was obviously a tough game for our group. I thought we had stretches where we were playing the right way and that is when we had success, but it got away from us. We need to come together tomorrow, play 60 minutes; we still have confidence we can play against anyone in this tournament if we play that way. I think we didn’t show our best tonight and we have to be ready for tomorrow.” - Pickering on looking ahead to Germany
“Obviously it is a tough loss and you don’t want to start off the tournament like that, but we definitely see some positives in the team. We just came together, so we’re still learning how to play with each other and moving forward I think we’re going to be a stronger team. We will learn a lot [from today] and we will be ready to go. Overall, not happy with the loss, but definitely some things to build on and look forward to.” - Wood on not panicking after one loss
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