World Junior A Challenge roundup: Blowout highlight Wednesday’s action
Canada West crushes Latvia
After a shocking victory over Latvia earlier in the week, Latvia was unable to keep the momentum going in a 10-0 loss to Canada West.
Canada West is the only unbeaten team in the tournament, now sitting with a 3-0 record after three games. They play last-place Sweden on Thursday, with the Swedes still chasing their first victory with time running out. Latvia’s win against Sweden puts them in a safe spot for now, but still need to win against USA on Friday to have control of their own fate.
The fun got started early, with Canada taking a 4-0 lead in the first. Hudson Malinoski beat Janis Fecers on the man advantage at 7:13 before Ty Daneault scored a minute later, only to do it again less than 20 seconds after that. Caelan Fitzpatrick finished the period’s action with a goal of his own, with Daneault grabbing an assist.
Another two goals in the first four minutes made it a 6-0 game early in the middle stanza. Aiden Fink took Liam Watkins’ feed and beat Fecers at 22:55, and Fitzpatrick snagged his second less than a minute later. The Latvians made a goalie change after that, but Daneault’s hat-trick goal at 8:20 made it 7-0. He’d score a fourth goal on the power play late in the game, with Fink and Sam Court adding the other goals to cap off a 10-0 win.
USA’s power play the difference in win over Canada East
The United States have grabbed their second consecutive win after beating Canada East 7-2 on Wednesday.
USA had four goals in a dominant first period effort, although it didn’t start that way. Joe Palodichuk opened the damage at 2:28, but Adam Barone scored on nearly 40 seconds later for Canada East on the power play to make it 1-1. Special teams proved to be the difference, as Quinn Finley, Garrett Schifsky and Sam Rinzel all scored on the man advantage to give USA the 4-1 advantage heading into the first break.
Canada’s Matthew Cato would answer back at 33:09, cutting USA’s advantage in half. But goals to Maddox Fleming and Quinn Finley just 34 seconds apart took away Canada’s momentum, making it a 6-2 game for USA. Ryan St. Louis, the son of Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, scored the lone goal in the third period to make it 7-2