Canada drops Game 2 to U SPORTS all-stars
Photo credit: Hockey Canada
Canada’s World Juniors hopefuls dropped Game 2 of its two-game series against the U SPORTS all-stars 6-1 Wednesday afternoon in Oakville, ON.
Jordan Dumais (HAL) and Carson Rehkopf (KIT) had assists for Canada. Former CHLer Eric Florchuk scored twice for U SPORTS while Andrew Coxhead, Riley Stotts, Dalton Duhart and Matthew Strutchers also scored.
Samuel St-Hilaire (SHE) made 12 saves for Canada while Dominic DiVincenttis (NB) stopped 11 of 14 shots in relief. Scott Ratzlaff (SEA) made 14 saves for U SPORTS before Mathis Rousseau turned aside all 19 shots in the second half of the game.
“I saw a tired team and team with a lot on their mind,” Canada head coach Alan Letang said. “Still, it was another game to evaluate. I thought Rousseau was excellent … We’ve got some tough decisions to make for sure.”
Canada took a 1-0 lead at 5:01 of the first as Rehkopf, and then Dumais, set up Macklin Celebrini before Jagger Firkus (MJ) hit the crossbar on the man advantage later in the frame.
U SPORTS got themselves level 2:57 into the second as Coxhead buried Mutala Sasha’s drop pass on a 3-on-2 before Florchuk made it 2-1 at 8:03 on another odd-man rush as he deked St-Hilarie out front.
Dylan Plouffe stretched the lead to 3-1 just 66 seconds into the third as his point shot beat a screened DiVicentiis before Duhart made it 4-1 just 22 seconds later.
Florchuk’s second of the afternoon came at 7:47 on a 3-on-1 rush before Struthers scored into an empty-net 52.2 seconds to play.
With the victory, U SPORTS moves to 7-9-1 all-time against Canada’s World Juniors National Junior Team.
Dumais left the game after the first period in what Letang called a precautionary move.
“He had a little bit of a hip flexor issue that we didn’t want to get any worse,” Letang said. “But we’ve seen enough of him in the first period and with his history this season and last year’s camp. We’ve got a good read on him so we know what to expect.”
Canada is set to announce its 2024 World Juniors roster later this afternoon.
"A lot of great discussion and we'll sort through it. We've got a lot of great people that have put a lot of hard work into knowing these players inside and out." @StingHockey head coach Alan Letang previews the next few hours as 🇨🇦 selects its 2024 #WorldJuniors roster. pic.twitter.com/GQiDxyrIui
— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) December 13, 2023