U-17 World Hockey Challenge Roundup: USA finishes round robin with perfect record
USA finished the round robin in convincing fashion, beating Canada White 8-2 on Thursday.
The win gives them a perfect 6-0 record ahead of Saturday’s championship game. Their opponent will be determined on Friday, with Finland, Canada Red and Sweden still in the running. Canada White needed to win both of their remaining games in regulation to make it to the medal round, but will instead wrap things up with a meeting against a hungry Finnish team on Friday.
The first period was a microcosm of how dominant USA has been in British Columbia, getting out to a 3-0 lead. It all started at 3:32 when Kamil Bendnarik’s shot beat David Egorov off of a Brodie Ziemer feed, making it 1-0. Less than 20 seconds later, James Hagens won a puck battle along the boards and roofed it over Egorov in a small opening, giving him 15 points in the tournament.
Lucas Van Vliet rounded it out at 5:07 after receiving Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen’s stretch pass, getting his own rebound on the breakaway to make it 3-0.
The Canadians struggled to get shots on board, falling to 23-7 by the time USA scored its fourth goal. This time, Christian Humphreys was there to crash the net and score after Shane Vansaghi was stopped on the breakaway, making it 4-0 USA. Humphreys scored his second of the night four minutes later after a great feed from Brendan McMorrow near the boards to make it 5-0.
Despite being down a man, the Canadians finally got on the board at 32:22. Marek Howell stole the puck on an American passing play and skated the other end of the ice on his own breakaway. He made no mistake shooting it over Jack Parsons, giving Canada its first goal. Charlie Pardue’s third of the tournament about 30 seconds later restored USA’s five-goal advantage.
Ryder Ritchie would score for Canada at 49:16 to give them their second goal of the game, but it didn’t really matter. A pair of goals from Shane Vasaghi made it 8-2, giving USA a dominant performance from start to finish.
Three Stars
- Christian Humphreys, F (USA): Humphreys has had a fantastic tournament as one of USA’s secondary scorers and was rewarded big time on Thursday.
- Max Plante, F (USA): Plante is one of the better playmakers in this tournament and he helped set up two goals, which is par for the course.
- Shane Vansaghi, F (USA): A nice two-goal performance, with both goals coming in the third period to stretch the lead further.