Canada Red and White to battle for gold at World U17 Hockey Challenge

Either way, Canada wins.

It’s an all-Canadian World U17 Hockey Challenge final tonight as Canada White and Canada Red battle for supremacy.

Moreso, 44 CHL players are guaranteed to leave Truro, N.S. with a medal. It just remains to be seen who departs with gold or silver.

While an all-Canadian final may have been the pre-tournament prediction, it hardly came in straight forward fashion.

Both sides suffered defeat in the two-game round-robin which meant neither side automatically advanced to the semi-finals.

While both cruised through their quarterfinals – Canada White took out Finland 5-1 while Canada Red disposed of Sweden 8-3 – the semi-finals almost sent one side home.

Canada White needed overtime to take out the USA 8-7 in a wild contest where Liam Pue (Regina/WHL) scored the game-winner at 4:16. The hosts had forced the extra frame with just 3:06 to play thanks to Brenner Lammens (Sarnia/OHL).

As for Canada Red, they eliminated Czechia in more traditionally after a 4-1 win.

All in all, it sets up an all-Canadian final for the second straight year; in 2024, Canada White won 3-1.

Canada has won gold at this tournament 16 times. Canada White is a three-time champion while oddly, Canada Red have never lifted the trophy.

The tournament – which features some of the best talent eligible for the 2027 and 2028 NHL Draft – has been dominated by Canada’s CHL contingent.

Canada Red’s Alexis Joseph (Saint John/QMJHL) leads the tournament in goals (6) and points (11) while Pue and Maddox Schultz, who are teammates in Regina, have each tallied eight points for Canada White. In fact, 11 of the top 16 scorers in the tournament are Canadian CHLers while 32 players have tallied at least one point.

Now however, it’s just a matter of 60 minutes to decide if Red or White are Golden.

Saturday’s final can be seen live on TSN2 at 6:30pm E.T.