Game Highlights of the Canada versus Sweden in the 2017 World Para ice hockey Championships, Gangneung, South Korea.
Canada beat Sweden, 17-0, tying its own record for the most goals scored by a single team in a World Championships game. Although captain Greg Westlake did not tally a point, 11 of his teammates did, with Tyler McGregor, Billy Bridges and Liam Hickey all coming away with hat tricks.
“We just wanted to make sure we did everything right and we stuck to our game plan,” McGregor said. “I was lucky to be here in 2013 for the World Championships as a rookie, and we won then, but it hasn’t happened since then. So we’re excited to get off to a great start this week and hopefully we can get another World Championship, because ultimately, that’s what we’re here for.”
Canada scored its first goal 80 seconds after the puck dropped when Hickey buried a feed from Bridges, who found the net about a minute later on the power play to make it 2-0 to open the floodgates. Forwards Dominic Cozzolino and Bryan Sholomicki followed suit with their first goals, and then Adam Dixon, Ben Delaney, McGregor and Bridges all connected to make it 8-0 by the first intermission.
The second frame was just as busy for Canada, with McGregor, Sholomicki and Hickey all scoring in the first nine minutes before Bridges finished his hat trick to make it 12-0. By earning an assist on Bridges’ goal, Dixon became just the fourth player from Canada to reach the 200-point mark in his national team career.
McGregor and Hickey scored their hat-trick goals two minutes apart in the third period as Dixon added a tally and Brad Bowden and Tyrone Henry put their names on the score sheet before the game’s end. Dixon now leads all players with 14 points in the tournament.
The pride of Quebec, Dominic Larocque, earned his second shutout in as many starts for Canada, while Ulf Nilsson and Andreas Neuman combined for 35 saves for Sweden.
Canada is now in first place in the tournament standings with nine points, followed by South Korea and the USA who both have six points.
The 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Championships are taking place from 11-20 April in Gangneung, South Korea, which is the ice sports venue city for the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. The tournament also serves as the Paralympic Test Event, with the top five finishers automatically qualifying for the PyeongChang 2018 Games.
All games from the 2017 World Para Ice Hockey Championships are being streamed live, alongside live statistics at www.Gangneung2017.com
Photos will be made available for media to download throughout the tournament on the IPC’s Flickr account.