Rudolph, Boychuk, and McDonald win gold at U17 World Hockey Challenge
It was an all Canadian gold medal game at the 2024 U17 World Hockey Challenge in Sarnia, ON, as Canada Red faced off against Canada White in the championship game. Daxon Rudolph, Riley Boychuk, and assistant coach Ryan McDonald came out on the right side of it, as they captured gold medals with a 3-1 win.
Canada White started their tournament with a 6-2 win over Czechia on November 3, but fell 5-4 in overtime to Sweden on November 5. In the quarter-finals on Thursday, Canada White took down Finland 4-2 to book their spot in the semis. To advance to the gold medal game, they would need to exact revenge against Sweden, and that’s exactly what they did, as they took down the Swedes 6-4 to punch their ticket to the final.
After going 2-0 in round robin play, Canada Red had received a bye straight to the semi final, where they took care of business with a 7-3 win over the United States to advance to the gold medal game.
The gold medal game between Canada White and Canada Red started off scoreless after 20 minutes, but Canada White scored twice in the second period to take a 2-0 lead into the third, thanks to goals from Jean-Christoph Lemieux and Mathis Preston. In the third, Adam Valentini added an insurance goal for Canada White to put them up 3-0. Braidy Wassilyn scored late for Canada Red, but one goal is all they would get, as Canada White took home gold with a 3-1 win.
