Bonneyville, Alberta – Czech Republic 5, Team Canada West 4 (SO)
· Harrison Blaisdell (Abbotsford, B.C./Chilliwack, BCHL) posted a two-goal night, while Riley Hughes (Westwood, Mass./Victoria, BCHL) and Austin Wong (Cochrane, Alta./Okotoks, AJHL) added goals for Team Canada West.
· Goaltender Matthew Radomsky (Winnipeg/Steinbach, MJHL) recorded 35 saves in the shootout loss.
· Game stats here.
Next games – Friday, Dec. 14:
· The United States matches up against Russia at the R.J. Lalonde Arena at 2 p.m. MT
· The Czech Republic takes on Team Canada East at the R.J. Lalonde Arena at 7 p.m. MT.TSN and RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the bronze and gold medal games on Dec. 16; please check local listings for details.
“We wanted to build momentum going into the semifinal because we know that test is going to be tremendous for us. Again, it’s playing our way, the right way, playing the Western way and that’s 200-foot hockey. I think we deviated from that game a little bit and we certainly made it a more difficult than it should have been here tonight for us against a very good Czech team. For us to get prepared for the semis, we have to make sure that we dial in to the coaching plan that we have here. We have to get 22 guys going.” Rick Swan, head coach for Team Canada West, looks ahead to the semifinals at the World Junior A Challenge
For more information on the 2018 World Junior A Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca/WJAC or follow along via social media on Facebook and Twitter.
