Canada to meet U.S. for Para hockey gold medal

Two third-period goals, scored 24 seconds apart, lifted Canada to a 2-1 victory over China in semifinal action at the World Para Ice Hockey Championship on Friday at WinSport Arena.

Micah Kovacevich and Dominic Cozzolino scored at 1:19 and 1:43 of the final period to erase a 1-0 deficit and punch their ticket to Sunday’s gold medal game against the United States.

Jin Tao Tian gave China a 1-0 lead in the first period with a power-play goal at 11:47.

Canada outshot China 17-15 and went 0-for-2 on the power play. China was 1-for-2 on the power play.

USA 3 CZECHIA 1

The United States advanced to its ninth straight gold-medal game with a 3-1 win over Czechia in Friday’s first semifinal game.

Malik Jones of the U.S. national team, scored the go-ahead goal with 7:01 remaining in the game.

“It was a challenging environment for us today, we struggled to finish a few chances and weren’t able to get any cushion early,” said U.S. coach David Hoff. “But I thought that we were in such a tough environment in the third and we were able to finish and pull through, I think it showed a lot of character from our guys.”

Chris Douglas opened scoring for the U.S. 8:56 into the contest when he capitalized on a one-timer from the slot after the puck was poked off the stick of Declan Farmer.

The U.S. outshot Czechia 22-7, and went 1-for-3 on the power play. Czechia went 0-for-3.