Bedard captures Canadian all-time WJC goals record; passes Lindros' points mark
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Connor Bedard broke three Canadian World Junior records with his first-period goal in Monday’s quarterfinal matchup against Slovakia.
Bedard now owns the Canadian record for goals in a World Junior Championship with 15, passing the mark held by Jordan Eberle. Bedard also became the leader in career points by a Canadian player, passing Eric Lindros’ record of 31 from 1990 to 1992 as well as the Canadian WJC single-tournament mark owned by Dale McCourt (1977) and Brayden Schenn (2011) at 18.
The goal opened the scoring and came off a Slovak turnover as Bedard took a feed from Logan Stankoven and beat goaltender Adam Gajan up high.
Bedard now has seven goals this tournament and sits three back of McCourt and John Anderson's Canadian single-tournament goals record of 10.
Lindros took to social media Sunday and urged Bedard to not only break his points record, but "smash it!", much to the delight of the Regina Pats star.
"It's pretty cool he even knows who I am," Bedard said Sunday. "That's awesome to hear that and him wanting me to beat it is cool. We'll see here. A few more games so hopefully I can."
The 17-year-old Regina Pats star had five points at the original 2022 World Juniors before its cancellation. He tallied eight points at the rescheduled tournament this past summer, giving him a total of 13 entering his run in the 2023 Juniors.
Bedard tallied seven points against Germany in Canada’s second game of the tournament and followed that up with six one night later against Austria. He matched Eberle's mark in last Thursday's win.
The winner of Canada and Slovakia will play team USA in the World Junior semifinal on Wednesday. Czechia takes on Sweden in the other semi.