Hockey Canada West Tops U.S. Junior Select Team in Prelims, 3-2 Team USA to meet Switzerland in quarterfinals

Now in its ninth year, the hockey World Junior A Challenge has crowned either the United States or Canada West as its champion in every year since the event’s inception. Those two titans met Tuesday night in the tournament’s preliminary round, with Canada West earning a 3-2 win and first place in Group B.

The victory gave Canada West (2-0-0-0) a bye into Thursday’s tournament semifinals and left the U.S. Junior Select Team (1-1-0-0) facing a quarterfinal matchup with Switzerland (0-2-0-0) Wednesday night. It also snapped Team USA’s five-game winning streak against Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge.

A capacity crowd in Ontario’s Cobourg Community Center watched an even game swing suddenly in Canada West’s favor when Noah Bauld scored a shorthanded goal at 16:57 of the first period. The Canadians then extended their lead to 2-0 at 10:19 of the second period, leaving Team USA to chase the game against a stingy Canadian defense.

“Canada West played a great game at a high level and they kept us to the perimeter,” said Cary Eades, head coach of the 2015 U.S. Junior Select Team. “But we also kept to the perimeter too much ourselves and you’re not going to beat a good team doing that.”

Thwarted despite a sizable advantage in second-period shots, the U.S. finally dented Canada West’s lead at 1:02 of the third period on a Liam Pecararo (Canton, Mass./Waterloo Black Hawks) goal. But Canada West regained its two-goal lead a mere two minutes later. Undaunted, the U.S. again pulled within one goal at 5:49 when Chase Pearson whacked in a rebound to make it 3-2. The teams then traded chances until Team USA pulled goaltender Kris Oldham (Anchorage, Alaska/Omaha Lancers) in the final minute and mounted a surge that fell just short of an equalizer despite a pair of great chances.

Buoyed by a strong third period, Team USA will now look to build on that momentum tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern Time in the tournament quarterfinals.

“We’ve got to have better starts,” said Eades. “We’ve been pretty mediocre in the first period of all three games. We’ve got to have that intensity and effort for a full 60 minutes, not just 40 or 20. But there’s no panic here. We’re not out of this tournament. We would have liked the bye into the semifinals, but now we just have to do it the hard way.”