Under-18 Team Canada tops their group in 2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament by edging Slovakia
Canada’s under-18 hockey team topped their group by winning all three matches in the 2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament as they registered a win against Slovakian under-18 team after a very close contest which saw Canadian team winning 3-2.
Team Canada, who had won both of their first two matches earlier in the tournament were already assured of a top place in the group stage but they did not take chance and maintained their high level of hockey and ended the group stage with a perfect record
of three wins and nine points out of three matches.
Canadian’s got two goals down and were losing in the third period but they made a miraculous comeback and scored three goals in a row to go 3-2 up with less than a minute left in the regulation time.
Slovakians had lost both of their matches from Switzerland and Sweden but they were playing for their pride and dignity. They had nothing to lose which gave them the confidence and they went all out of it.
Kristian Horvat of Slovakia gave his team the lead earlier on by scoring the first goal of his team and Martin Ambroz doubled the lead after sometime to give Slovakians a lead of two goals.
Slovakians had that two goals lead until there were just 3 minutes and 45 seconds left in the regulation time of the game but Ryan Kujawinski, who plays Kingston in OHL scored the opening goal for Canada, before Joshua Morrissey levelled it by scoring the
second. Sam Reinhart scored with just 53 seconds left to give Canada the win.
Canada’s coach Todd Gill was very happy on his team’s performance as he said,
"We played like we were through for the first period. Finally we kicked it up a notch but we just couldn't put the puck past their goalie."
Gill also added,
"The No. 1 thing I think for Canada is we have all our best players here, and when we hit some adversity, individualism kicks in. It's not because they're selfish, they just want to do something to get us over the hump. That happened in the first two periods,
and in the third we started playing our system, and we were all over them and were lucky enough to get the three goals."
Canada will now face hosts Czech Republic in the semifinals.
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