Team Canada wins Gold Medal at Ivan Hlinka Tournament, make it fourth straight victory
After the annual U-18 Junior World Cup, formally known as the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament began nearly a week ago, Sweden had come out as one of the toughest competitors and was surely expected to win as the series advances.
Defeating Canada, 5-1, in the first game of the tournament, Sweden continued on a winning streak which had all other contestants surprised at the situation. Fortunately for team Canada, they recovered in a matchup on Saturday, August 13th, and
overcame their previous loss to eliminate Sweden by 4-1 and take the gold medal, for the fourth straight victory.
Steve Spott, Kitchener Rangers coach in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), who was selected for the national coaching position, did not fail to impress as he was moved up from being an assistant coach last year.
According to Spott, Sweden played hard, but his team played harder.
"(Sweden) were a team that was pretty proud and I think took us light", Spott said. "We learned a good lesson Monday night but we were just hoping to get this opportunity because we knew we were better than we were last Monday. Thankfully our boys bought
into our game plan and executed it to perfection".
Contributing in team Canada’s near shutout of the Sweden team were Sean Monahan, Scott Laughton, Brendan Gaunce and Charles Hudon. Calle Anderson was the only player from the Swedish side who managed to score a goal when he tied it up late into the second
period, but Canada responded a few moments later to once again take the lead.
Spott regarded his teams success as being a result of positive thinking and team work.
"It's staying positive", Spott said when asked what his secret was to controlling a number of young players all looking for recognition. "And just letting them know that we just need to get better every day and if we do that we'll still have a chance to
play for a gold medal and they never lost faith".
Sweden came up second to win the silver medal while it was Russia who made the bronze this time.
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