Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team Wins Gold Medal
Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team has won the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship after a 3-2 win over the United States in Sunday’s gold medal game.
The gold medal is Canada’s third all-time at the world championship. Overall, Canada has won five medals since first taking part in 2002: three gold (2003, 2008, 2013), one silver (2005) and one bronze (2012).
Canada finished first in Group B in the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0 record, recording victories over Slovakia (4-1), Germany (3-1), Switzerland (10-1) and Sweden (6-0).
On Sunday, Laurent Dauphin (Repentigny, Que./Chicoutimi, QMJHL) had a goal and an assist and Frédérik Gauthier (Saint-Lin-Laurentides, Que./Rimouski, QMJHL) scored the winner late in the second period as Canada won despite being outshot 35-12. Madison Bowey (Winnipeg, Man./Kelowna, WHL) scored the other Canadian goal, while Philippe Desrosiers (St-Hyacinthe, Que./Rimouski, QMJHL) made 33 saves.
Dauphin scored the lone goal of the first period before the Americans took the lead with two in the first half of the second period. Canada had just four shots on goal in the middle frame but scored on two of them, with Bowey tying the game at 12:48, followed by Gauthier at 16:26 with the eventual game-winner.
Following the game, forward Connor McDavid (Newmarket, Ont./Erie, OHL) was named Top Forward by the IIHF directorate as well as Most Valuable Player, as selected by the media. McDavid led the tournament in scoring, with 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in seven games.
