Canada East will play the United States in a semifinal at the 2024 Junior A World Challenge in Camrose, Alberta, Saturday night.
The East team, with 13 players from the Ontario Junior Hockey League on the roster, closed out the round-robin portion with a 5-2 loss to unbeaten Sweden Thursday.
Zachary Deleau (Valleyfield, LHJAAAQ) scored shorthanded to pull Canada East even at 2-2 at 8:30 of the third period.
Cameron Menard (Espanola, NOJHL) also scored for Canada East, assisted by Parker Forlin (Niagara Falls, OJHL).
Noah Tegelaar (Collingwood, OJHL) made 38 saves.
“I don’t think the game really got away from us, I would say they got the puck luck that we didn’t get,” said Canada East head coach Bruce Richardson. “Really, I’m so proud of the guys – nobody would have bet on us before the game, and I think we proved that we’re in the tournament and capable to play against anyone.
“We still have to stay out of the penalty box. We want to play an intense, in-your-face type hockey game, but we can’t cross the line. We killed off the penalties, but still didn’t win the special-teams battle. We’ll clean it up and we’ll be ready for Saturday, that’s for sure.”
Next Games – December 14 (semifinals)
Canada West vs. Sweden – 3 p.m. ET
Canada East vs. United States – 7 p.m. ET
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast Sunday’s bronze medal and gold medal games.
Both semifinals will be available via Hockey Canada’s livestreaming partner at HNLive.ca.
Photo and files courtesy: Hockey Canada
