Canada’s Connor Bedard became the youngest player to score four goals in a single world junior men’s hockey championship game on Tuesday in Edmonton.
The 16-year-old from North Vancouver, B.C., propelled Canada to an 11-2 win over Austria with his quadruple, which also tied the tournament’s single-game scoring record.
Mason McTavish scored twice and had an assist and Cole Perfetti had a goal and two assists for the host country (2-0). Kent Johnson, Lukas Cormier, Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque also scored for the Canadians.
Eliot Desnoyers and Will Cuylle each assisted on three Bedard goals. Brett Brochu stopped 20 of 22 shots for the win in his first start of the tournament.
Lukas Necesany and Mathias Bohm scored for Austria (0-2) with beleaguered starter Leon Sommer making 53 saves in the loss.
Bedard joined Mario Lemieux (1983), Simon Gagne (1999), Brayden Schenn (2010), Taylor Raddysh (2016) and Maxime Comtois (2018) in the Canadian junior men’s record books for the most goals scored in a single game.
WATCH | Bedard’s big night propels Canada to rout of Austria:
Bedard ties record with 4 goals, Canada routs Austria
9 hours ago
Duration 3:23
The Canadian Junior team had no trouble with Austria hanging 11 to improve to 2-0 at the tournament. 3:23
Bedard was the seventh 16-year-old named to the national men’s junior team in its 45-year history, joining players such as Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby.
No other 16-year-old produced four goals in a game, however. Gretzky scored a hat trick in 1977 against Czechoslovakia.
“It’s definitely cool hearing your name and one of, if not the greatest to ever play,” Bedard said. “It’s one game and I don’t think I’ll be getting 2,800 points in the NHL. It’s cool though to hear my name with his. It’s good, but we’ve got a long way to go in this tournament.”
COVID-related issues, change of lineups
Canada plays its second Pool A game in as many days Wednesday against Germany and concludes the preliminary round on New Year’s Eve against the Finns.
That’s if the men’s under-20 tournament isn’t further derailed by the COVID-19 virus. The Canada-Austria matchup was the only game played Tuesday.
Two American players testing positive had the U.S. forfeiting a Pool B game to Switzerland with the entire team in mandatory quarantine.
The Swiss were awarded a 1-0 win under International Ice Hockey Federation rules. The IIHF has yet to determine if the U.S. can play Wednesday’s Pool B game against Sweden in Red Deer, Alta.
The quarter-finals are Sunday followed by the Jan. 4 semifinals and Jan. 5 medal games in Edmonton.
“All the work that’s done to get in here and pull this tournament off under these trying conditions, you don’t want to see any team forfeit a game the way the U.S. [did], so hopefully just a one-off for them and the tournament continues,” Canadian head coach Dave Cameron said.
“I think our team’s been really diligent. We’re in a tight bubble. You keep your fingers crossed and keep preaching the diligency part of it.”
WATCH | World juniors kicks off amid Omicron concerns:
World Junior hockey championship kick off amid Omicron surge
2 days ago
Duration 1:56
The World Junior hockey championship is underway in Alberta, where arenas are limited to 50 per cent capacity and players and officials are confined to a ‘bubble’ with regular COVID-19 testing. But some infectious disease experts say there shouldn’t be any spectators allowed inside at all. 1:56
Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions limits spectators in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., to 50 per cent capacity. Rogers Place was far from its half-capacity of 9,320 on Tuesday with attendance of 3,862.
Players moving out and into the lineup had Canada shuffling lines Tuesday, with Bedard shifted onto a line with Cuylle and Desnoyers.
Canadian forward Justin Sourdif served a one-game suspension for an illegal check to the head in Sunday’s tournament-opening 6-3 win over Czechia.
Forward Xavier Bourgault also didn’t play after taking a hit to the head in Sunday’s third period.
“Fingers crossed he can skate tomorrow,” Cameron said.
Canada continues strong play behind Bedard
Stankoven of the Kamloops Blazers and Soo Greyhounds defenceman Ryan O’Rourke drew in to play their first games of the tournament.
Bedard’s fourth goal was a tip-in at 2:34 of the third period. The Canadians scored six unanswered goals before Austria responded late in the second period.
Bedard scored back-to-back goals in a 71-second span late in the first to spot his team a 5-0 lead.
The Regina Pats forward then collected the puck off an offensive-zone draw and whipped a wrist shot over Sommer at 6:13 of the second period to complete his hat trick.
He got a second swing at a pinballing puck for a power-play goal and finished a give-and-go with Cuylle off the rush in the first period.
A Brochu gaffe led to Austria’s first goal with 31 seconds remaining in the second period when the Canadian goaltender lost a foot race with Vinzenz Rohrer.
The Ottawa 67 had time to whip the puck cross-ice to Necesany, who had half an open net as a target.
Austria earned promotion to the 2021 top-tier world junior men’s championship by winning the 2020 Division 1 tournament. For a second straight year, and because of COVID cancellations of lower-tiered tournaments, no team will be relegated from this tournament.
“Canada is not the easiest team to play against,” Rohrer said. “When we talk with the coaches in the locker-room, we just say we want to focus on our games and not how the relegation is and what team it is.
“We had really good parts of our game where we can really take something from that. The second period we went 1-1.”
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
