Bedard looks for repeat performance for Canada against Austria
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Team Canada takes on Austria in their third game of the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship on Thursday, Dec. 29, in Halifax.
Canada is looking for their first back-to-back gold medals since they won five straight from 2005-09 and are primed to do so with eight returning players from 2022.
The last time these two teams met, Regina Pats phenom Connor Bedard put on a show scoring four goals in an 11-2 rout prior to the 2022 tournament in Edmonton being postponed until August due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bedard became the youngest Canadian player to reach the four-goal plateau and the first 16-year-old to do it since Wayne Gretzky accomplished the feat in 1977.
The potential 2023 No. 1 overall NHL Draft pick joined Gretzky (1977), Mario Lemieux (1983), Simon Gagne (1999), Brayden Schenn (2010), Taylor Raddysh (2016), and Maxime Comtois (2018) as the only Canadians to reach that mark.
Canadian forward Mason McTavish joined that club as well when the 2022 World Juniors restarted in August, scoring four goals in an 11-1 drubbing of Slovakia.
Bedard looks to put on a show again, with the 2023 edition of the World Juniors being the biggest hockey stage he will perform at prior to the 2023 NHL Draft.
Austria finished in 10th place in the 2022 World Juniors and were not relegated after the IIHF decided not to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They will be missing top prospect Marco Kasper in this year’s tournament after making an “internal agreement” with his current club, Rogle BK of the Swedish Hockey League.
Kasper, 18, was drafted eighth overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2022 NHL Draft and has four goals and 12 points in 24 games with Rogle BK this season.
Austria will be led by Montreal Canadiens prospect Vinzenz Rohrer. The 18-year-old winger was drafted 75th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft and has 11 goals and 32 points in 26 games with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s this season.