Canada’s National Para Hockey Team earned a silver medal for the second consecutive year at the International Para Hockey Cup, falling 4-1 to the United States in the gold medal game Sunday at Ostravar Arena.
Captain Tyler McGregor (Forest, ON) scored on the power play in the third period to cut the deficit to two, but Canada was unable to get any closer. James Dunn (Wallacetown, ON) and Dominic Cozzolino (Mississauga, ON) both registered an assist.
“We got back to making it difficult for our opponents to get good scoring opportunities. Our defensive coverage was good, we moved the puck pretty well when we had it and had some good looks up ice that we were not able to capitalize on,” said head coach Russ Herrington (Unionville, ON/York University, OUA) “That is as good an effort as our lineup can give and for that, the staff is all happy with their performance. We saw a lot of growth from our younger players who have never been in this situation, and they put on a good performance today.”
Canada finished the preliminary round with a 1-2 record, besting Czechia in its first game of the tournament and dropping its next two games to the United States and Team IPH. Canada earned its spot in the gold medal game with a 4-1 win over Team IPH in the semifinals on Saturday.
Adam Kingsmill (Smithers, BC) turned in a strong performance, making 28 saves, while Canada’s penalty kill went 2-for-2 on Sunday. Micah Kovacevich (Edmonton, AB) was named Canada’s player of the game.
“We did a really good job of keeping ourselves in the game. We had a couple of important penalty kills, everyone was playing hard, and everyone was positive,” McGregor said. “It is obviously disappointing, but there are a lot of good things that have come from tonight’s performance. We have been trying to grow individually and collectively as a team, we had the opportunity to do that, and the experience will pay dividends in the long term.”
Canada’s National Para Hockey Team will now focus on the 2023 Para Hockey Cup, Dec. 3-9 in Quispamsis, NB.