(Release courtesy Hockey Canada)
Canada East 2, Canada West 1
Tate Collins (Newmarket, ON/Toronto, OJHL) netted the game-winning goal for Canada East with less than three minutes left in the third period.
Ben Deacon (St. Albert, AB/Devon, AJHL) opened the scoring for Canada West just under three minutes into the first period.
Alex Hendry (Milton, ON/Summerside, MHL) scored the equalizer for Canada East 8:51 into the middle frame.
Canada West outshot Canada East 32-29.
Next games (pre-tournament) – Friday, Dec. 5
Sweden vs. Canada East – 7 p.m. ET (Colisée Jean-Béliveau – Longueuil, QC)
United States vs. Canada West – 7 p.m. ET (Aréna de Montmagny – Montmagny, QC)
All tournament games will be available via livestream on HNLive.ca, while the gold medal game will also be available on TSN+.
Quotes:
“I really like the way we competed, and there were a lot of positives [in tonight’s game]. There are a lot of things we still need to work on, but it was a good start and I know our guys love that feeling of winning. We will be able to show our players some video of things we can improve, but our guys came to play tonight. We were matching up against a team that is similar [to us], but we played with a lot of pace. I thought both goaltenders played very well tonight, and I like the way we defended, so we will learn from this and continue to improve for Friday.”
Canada East head coach Bruce Richardson (Pincourt, QC/Valleyfield, LHJAAAQ) on the first pre-tournament game and win.
“I thought it was an excellent hockey game. Both teams played with a lot of speed and compete. I really liked our effort, but it came down to a game of inches and the little details. We have an intelligent group that are easy to coach, and they are buying in to what we are trying to accomplish. Tonight was a great first step and a very well-played game by both clubs, and our tournament is off to a good start.”
Canada West head coach Trevor Blevins (Melfort, SK/Melfort, SJHL) on tonight’s game.
