(Release courtesy Hockey Canada)
2025 Junior A World Challenge – Trois-Rivières, Québec – December 7-13
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Canada East 4, United States 1
Tate Vader (Gowanstown, ON/Collingwood, OJHL) led the Canada East offence with two points (1G, 1A).
Peter Legostaev (Ottawa, ON/Brockville, CCHL), Alex Hendry (Milton, ON/Summerside, MHL) and Max Anderson (Orono, ON/King, OJHL) rounded out the scoring with one goal apiece.
Kale Osipenko (Renfrew, ON/Renfrew, CCHL) was outstanding in the Canada East goal, turning in a 52-save performance and earning Player of the Game honours.
The United States outshot Canada East 53-29.
Sweden 6, Canada West 2
Will Lutic (St. Albert, AB/Canmore, AJHL) picked up a goal and a helper for Canada West in the loss.
Thomas Ries (Humboldt, SK/Yorkton, SJHL) added a power-play goal for Canada West.
Goaltender Taye Timmerman (Winnipeg, MB/Warman, SJHL) made 39 saves.
Next games – Monday, Dec. 8
Sweden vs. United States – 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT
Canada East vs. Canada West – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
All tournament games will be available via livestream on HNLive.ca, while the gold medal game will also be available on TSN+.
Quotes:
“We gave [the United States] several opportunities on the power play and, as it should be in those situations, our best player was our goaltender [Kale Osipenko]. He gave us confidence by keeping our team in the game, and the players backed him up with a few goals. I am happy for my guys today, because our players did a good job on the penalty kill, which is something we have emphasized over the past few days. We are going to have to learn to control our emotions because it is not easy to score goals when you are competing shorthanded, and when we were at even strength tonight, our [scoring] chances were roughly the same [as the Americans].”
Canada East head coach Bruce Richardson (Pincourt, QC/Valleyfield, LHJAAAQ) on tonight’s win.
“I was really seeing the puck well today. I had a good first period and it gave me confidence. Going back to the locker room with a 1-0 lead after one period was huge for us. I wanted to do well in my first game with Team Canada, and although I was nervous, the nerves went away after making a few saves early in the game. The fact that the United States had multiple five-on-four opportunities helped me get into the game, face a lot of shots, and stay focused. I am very happy with how our team played, and my teammates really put in a tremendous effort.”
Osipenko on his performance and the victory.
“I thought our start was okay, and we were very competitive. It could have been a tie game after the first [period], but we have to give Sweden credit. They really controlled the puck, and we lacked some urgency through the neutral zone, so we will need to clean up some things against our next opponents. Obviously, it is a disappointing result, but there are a lot of positives to build on, and we are going to stick with it and get better every day. We had a lot of action around the net on the power play, and I thought we deserved more with the chances we had because the execution was there and our players are buying into what we are asking them to do.”
Canada West head coach Trevor Blevins (Melfort, SK/Melfort, SJHL) on tonight’s game.
Photo credit: Hockey Canada Images
