Tigers’ Williams leads Canada past Sweden at Hlinka Gretzky
EDMONTON Canada is feeling a lot more battle-tested heading into the playoff portion of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Josh Williams and Alexis Lafreniere each had a goal and an assist as Canada narrowly defeated Sweden 4-3 to close out the round robin portion of the under-18 hockey tournament on Wednesday.
Canada finished first in its pool with a record of 3-0, while Sweden was 2-1.
“It was a really close game,” Lafreniere said. “They worked very hard, but we stayed focused on our game plan and had a big goal at the end of the game. We have to stay focused on ourselves going forward.”
Matthew Robertson and Kirby Dach also scored for Canada.
“Sweden gave us a really good challenge, but we just kept going,” Robertson said. “We faced some adversity with some of the calls, but I think we went out there and played our game right to the finish.”
Lucas Raymond, Alexander Holtz and Elmer Soderblom responded for Sweden.
The Canadians will face the United States in Friday’s semifinals, while Sweden will be up against Russia.
“We were challenged and that is always a good thing, seeing as we got the win,” Williams said. “The Americans are a good team and it is obviously a huge rivalry. It will be fun to be a part of and hopefully we can get the win at home and get to the final on Saturday.”
Canada has won gold in nine of the last 10 of these U-18 tournaments.
Despite being outshot 9-1 to that point, Sweden struck first on the power play with six-anda-half minutes to play in the first period when Raymond took a nice return pass from Holtz and deposited the puck into the net before Canadian goalie Nolan Maier (Saskatoon, WHL) could get across.