COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Now in its ninth year, the 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.”
NOTES: All eight of Team USA’s goals thus far in the tournament have come from different players … Team USA outshot Canada West 32-29 … Both the U.S. and Canada West went 0-for-3 on the power play … Click here for complete game statistics … The 2015 World Junior A Challenge includes Canada East, Canada West, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Russia and the United States … The World Junior A Challenge is in its ninth year, and the U.S. is competing for the eighth time. Team USA has won six of the last seven tournaments, including the last three in a row (2008-2010, 2012-14) … FASTHockey.com is live streaming games from the 2015 World Junior A Challenge.
