Comtois, Glass lead Canada past Switzerland in pre-tournament play
VICTORIA, BC – Philipp Kurashev (Quebec Remparts) opened the scoring for Switzerland before Canada responded with three goals before the end of the first frame, wrestling back control of the game in an eventual 5-3 victory at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Anaheim Ducks prospect Maxime Comtois (Drummondville Voltigeurs) had a goal and two assists in the first period before adding another marker into the empty net later in the game to pave the way to victory as Canada outshot Switzerland 30-10.
Vegas Golden Knights prospect Cody Glass (Portland Winterhawks) had a goal and two assists while other Canada tallies came off the sticks of Owen Tippett (Mississauga Steelheads) and Jack Studnicka (Oshawa Generals) who scored on a second period power play.
The line of Comtois, Glass and Tippett was Canada’s best on the night.
“We just used our speed and skill,” said Tippett. “We had a good week in practice and we knew where to find each other so after we got clicking on that first shift there it was a pretty good game.”
Valentin Nussbaumer (Shawinigan Cataractes) and Tobias Giesser accounted for Switzerland’s other goals as Canada’s Michael DiPietro (Ottawa 67’s) made seven saves on the night.
Canada is back in action at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre Friday night, taking on Slovakia at 8pm ET/5pm PT before wrapping up its pre-tournament schedule against Finland on Sunday night in Vancouver at 10pm ET/7pm PT.
The 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship begins Boxing Day with Canada opening defence of its gold medal against Denmark at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
OTHER WORLD JUNIOR PRE-TOURNAMENT SCORES:
Tuesday December 18:
Sweden 4, Russia 2
Friday December 19:
Czech Republic 2, Slovakia 1 – SO
CZE: Jakub Lauko (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies) – 1G
SVK: Milos Roman (Vancouver Giants) – 1G
SVK: Michal Ivan (Acadie-Bathurst Titan) – 1A
Finland 7, Denmark 0
Kazakhstan 5, Port Alberni Bulldogs (BCHL) 2