Canada edge Czechia to capture third straight Hlinka Gretzky Cup
Published
Canada won the Hlinka Gretzky Cup for the third straight year after defeating Czechia 2-1 in Saturday's gold medal game from Edmonton.
Liam Kilfoil of the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads and Caleb Desnoyers of the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats opened the scoring for the Canadians with goals in the first period. Canada weren't able to find the back of the net in the second period on seven shots or the final period on five shots.
Czechia winger Tomas Poletin gave his side slight hope late in the third period when he scored with nine seconds remaining in the game, but it was too little, too late.
Canada goalie Jack Ivankovic stopped 18 of 19 shots from Czechia while the Canadians had a total of 26 shots on net.
Canada went 3-0 in the preliminary round, outscoring Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland by a total of 17-2.
On Friday, Canada downed the United States 5-1 in the semifinals, getting goals from five different players, including Cameron Schmidt, Alex Huang, Cole Reschny, Luca Romano and Gavin McKenna.
This year's gold medal game was a rematch of the 2023 final when Canada defeated Czechia in overtime as Malcolm Spence scored seven seconds remaining in the extra frame to give Canada its second straight gold at the tournament.
Canada has now won the under-18 summer hockey tournament 25 times, 20 more than second place Russia.
Sweden defeated the United States 6-3 in the bronze medal game earlier on Saturday.