NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Team Canada White's Cole Sillinger takes down the USA's Roman Schmidt (right) during a World Under-17 Hockey Challenge semifinal Friday, Nov. 8, 2019 at Canalta Centre.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Cole Sillinger will be playing for a medal on Saturday at the Canalta Centre, just not the one he wanted.
The 16-year-old Team Canada White centre was held off the scoresheet in a 7-3 semifinal loss to the United States at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge on Friday in Medicine Hat. While there was no sugar-coating the heartbreak, Sillinger says his squad already focused on ending the tournament with some hardware when they return to the Canalta Centre to host the Czechs for bronze on Saturday at 3 p.m.
“It’s tough. Obviously we wanted to win the tournament,” said Sillinger. “Being Canadian and having it in Medicine Hat, it was something I wanted to do – bring it home. But our goal was to be in the medal rounds and we’ve got a chance at that (Saturday) so we’ve just got to forget this one and move forward.”
Jeremy Wilmer scored twice in a wonky four-goal middle frame to lead the Americans back into the final after missing out on the podium last year. They’ll remain at the Canalta Centre to face Russia for gold on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“This is what we’ve been looking forward to since the year started,” said Wilmer. “We’ve just got to come out hard (Saturday) like we did today.”
American head coach John Wroblewski says he’s thrilled with the result, however the execution was sloppier than he’d like to admit – and he’ll expect better from his young American squad when they return for a shot at gold.
“It’s weird because there weren’t a lot of tangible teaching points out of that one. It was just a real sloppy game. I’m a little concerned about what our mentality is going to be coming into (the final). It’s going to be a huge readjustment,” said Wroblewski, whose Americans won gold in 2017. “(Russia) has really come a long way in how they play. It used to be more of a free-flowing style and they’ve really acclimated to the North American chip-and-chase, and blocking shots. They’re a gritty federation.”
Team U.S.A. came out with a commanding attack to start the first. After hemming the Canadians into their own end for the majority of the opening 10 minutes, Chaz Lucius batted a puck out of the air and past goaltender Tyler Brennan to put the Americans in front.
Colby Saganiuk padded the lead just over a minute later when he joined Ryan St. Louis on the rush and snapped a cross-ice feed behind Brennan to leave Canada in a two-goal deficit after 20 minutes.
“A lot that we’ve been talking about was getting our starts better, which we definitely did,” said Wilmer. “We got the lead early and we just built from there.”
Canada was given a chance to regain some momentum early in the second when Jack Hughes chipped one over the glass for a delay of game penalty, but it only took the Americans 39 seconds to take the puck down-ice and set up the zone, leading to a shorthanded blast from Roman Schmidt to make it 3-0.
Tasting a shot at gold, Team U.S.A. kept the pedal down and Sean Behrens found Wilmer on the doorstep to end Brennan’s night on 14 shots.
William Rousseau entered the crease in relief, but was beaten on his first shot when American winger Red Savage carved through the Canadian defence and scored on a short break to suck the air out of the Canalta Centre.
Canada dug in and Guillaume Richard finally broke through the defences of U.S. netminder Kaiden Mbereko with a shot off a defender’s skate to bring some life back to the stands, but Wilmer quickly re-established America’s five-goal lead with a bar-down snipe.
“I didn’t think we played our best,” said Sillinger “I didn’t think we came out as strong as we wanted to. When you play a team like that, they’re going to take advantage … I think we started hitting too late, starting getting on them too late.”
American forward Dylan Duke continued the onslaught with a power play goal midway through the third period.
Canada pushed for a way back, and managed to string together a few late tallies from Richard and Charles-Alexis Legault, but it was all they’d get past Mbereko.
“We can build off of that, but there are a lot of things we can do better in the next game,” said Richard. “We’ve got to forget what we’ve done bad today and keep on building.”
Rousseau stopped 16 in relief of Brennan, while Mbereko locked up the win with a 21-save effort.
“I thought both goalies got tested in weird spots,” said Wroblewski. “(Mbereko) was probably the star of the game.”
Russia 4, Czech Republic 0
Fedor Svechkov scored twice to lead the reigning champion Russians back into the gold medal game with a 4-0 win over the Czech Republic in Friday’s semifinal at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex.
Daniil Iurov opened the scoring eight minutes into the game to leave the Czechs in a hole, then Svechkov scored late in the second to double up on the lead.
Daniil Lazutin stretched the lead even further early in the third, then Svechkov struck again in the dying minutes of regulation to snuff out any hope for a Czech comeback.
Pavel Kanaev stopped all 21 shots he faced to earn the shutout, while Czech netminder Thomas Suchanek settled for the 16-save loss.
Russia won gold at last year’s tournament with a 2-1 victory over Finland in the final.
The Czechs return to the Canalta Centre to face Canada White for bronze on Saturday at 3 p.m.
