U.S. beats undisciplined Canada 4-1 on New Year’s Eve at world juniors

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This article was published 31/12/2024 (650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Canada’s parade to the penalty box started midway through the first period.

It never really stopped.

And that string of undisciplined play cost the host country dearly on New Year’s Eve at the world junior hockey championship.

Danny Nelson scored the winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves as the United States beat Canada 4-1 to take Group A.

The Canadians allowed three goals off seven American man advantages Tuesday on a frustrating, heated night for the 20-time gold medallists.

“I can’t address it — they know it,” head coach Dave Cameron said of the team being unable to walk the officiating line. “They know the penalties are penalties. They have to decide. It’s simple as that.”

“It’s an individual thing, it’s a character thing,” continued Cameron, who liked his group’s game at even strength. “They have to decide … pretty sure they will. They’ve been dangling there, and they really got burned tonight. I think lesson learned.”

Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman added a goal and an assist each for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into the empty net to ice the chippy affair.

“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”

Bradly Nadeau replied for Canada, which got 24 stops from Carter George.

“You can say as much as you want,” Canadian captain Brayden Yager said of the penalties. “It’s not going to change unless we actually do something about it.

“We’ll be a lot better.”

Canada, which is looking to rebound after a disastrous fifth-place showing last year, finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans get Switzerland.

The other matchups will see Group B winners Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.

Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in the hosts’ 7-4 comeback victory.

“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”

The North American neighbours met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout triumph in the title game.

Canada opened this year’s under-20 tournament with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before suffering a shocking 3-2 shootout loss to Latvia and registering a nervy 3-0 victory over Germany. The U.S. thumped Germany 10-4, topped Latvia 5-1 and fell 4-3 to Finland in overtime.

The Canadians had a power play to start the third period down 1-0 and Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first of the event at 1:58.

Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22 after taking a pass from Huston and firing his third past George.

Canada went back to the man advantage, with 17-year-old Gavin McKenna rattling the iron behind Augustine just as the penalty expired.

The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the night at 13:21 when Eiserman rifled his second after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.

Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from small pockets of American fans in the quickly emptying rink.

“It was electric in there, something I’ve never experienced,” McKenna said. “Disappointing we couldn’t do it for the fans.”

George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.

“We’d rather play in a sold-out building, even if the fans are against us,” U.S. head coach David Carle said. “Really fun environment to be a part of.”

After hitting the post earlier in the opening period, Hutson snapped home his second goal of the tournament on a power play.

The temperature was turned up later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.

Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage, got enough of with his glove at the other end before emotions again boiled over at the buzzer.

Canada had a couple of good looks on its first man advantage and continued to push the pace until penalty trouble led to three straight U.S. power plays.

George made a big stop on Austin Burnevik on the first and then held the fort again on the next two.

Canada had another great chance to even the score, but Augustine fired out his right pad to deny Tanner Molendyk.

“We took ourselves out of it with all the penalties,” McKenna said. “We dominated 5-on-5. If we stay out of the box, it’s probably our game.”

If the discipline isn’t addressed, it could be more of the same in the quarterfinals — and another early exit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2024.