After sliding down to Canada's fourth line, Bedard tried to finish with heroics in a 3-2 shootout loss to Switzerland on Saturday. Kurashev, his linemate in Chicago, was a scratch in last two games for Swiss.

Connor Bedard came on late with his team to help try to save Canada's hopes for a second straight IIHF World Championship.

It wasn't enough. The Canadians fell to Switzerland 3-2 in a shootout in their semifinal game on Saturday in Prague after rallying and sending it to overtime.

Bedard set up John Tavares' power-play goal with 2:07 left in the third period that tied it 2-all. The 18-year-old Calder Trophy finalist managed Canada's only score in a five-frame shootout.

Canada trailed 2-0 in the first after NHLers Kevin Fiala and Nino Niederreiter scored power-play goals 2:10 apart.

Brandon Tanev's goal at 4:02 of the third cut it to 2-1. 

With time winding down and Canada on the power play, Bedard danced with the puck just inside the Swiss blue line, moving left to right. He slipped a pass to Tavares in the right circle, then Canada's and the Toronto Maple Leafs' captain beat goalie Leonardo Genoni with a low one-timer. https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2024/wm/gamecenter/video/54248/62-can-vs-sui

That sent it to a 10-minute overtime.

Following a scoreless OT, Bedard opened the five-frame shootout with Canada's only goal in the tiebreaker. He stickhandled in, froze Genoni and wristed in a shot through a gaping five-hole. https://x.com/TSN_Sports/status/1794444910713528755

Fiala and Sven Andrighetto solved St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington to settle it.

“That’s as close as it gets. It’s still hard to believe really," Tavares said. "A lot of credit to the guys for sticking with it, battling back. It comes down to that circumstance and unfortunately we didn’t come out on top.”

Switzerland will meet Czechia in the final on Sunday in Prague.

Bedard's Numbers

Bedard finished with five goals and three assists in nine games and was a plus-4 in his first IIHF Worlds. The 18-year-old had raced out with five goals and an assist in the first three games before sputtering and finding himself on Canada's fourth line with diminished ice time.

Bedard staged a bit of a bounceback on Saturday.

The center played a total of 13:04 with 16 shifts against the Swiss after skating just 2:08 in the first period. Bedard, the NHL's leading rookie scorer of 2023-24, played just 8:08 in Canada's 6-3 quarterfinal win over Slovakia on Thursday.

IIHF Worlds, Not IIHF World Juniors

The previous time Bedard skated in an international tournament for Canada, he was the undeniable star of the show.

History didn't repeat at the 2024 IIHF World Championship.

Bedard led Canada to the gold medal at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championships that concluded on Jan. 5. 2023 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, lighting up the ice with nine goals and record-setting 23 points in seven games  

The key word here: junior. Bedard was still a member of the WHL Regina Pats and not yet a pro.

Fast forward just over 16 months and after a successful rookie season with the Blackhawks. Despite a quick start for Canada at "big boy" Worlds, Bedard almost became a footnote before his late surge in the tournament.

Things went far worse for Bedard's Blackhawks linemate, Philipp Kurashev. He wasn't even in in Switzerland's lineup against Canada Saturday, or its previous contest.

The two had clicked often during the 2023-24 NHL season. 

The 18-year-old Bedard put up 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games to lead the Blackhawks and all rookies in scoring. Kurashev, a Swiss national whose parents are from Russia, broke out at age 24 with 18 goals and 54 points. Never mind that both were a minus-44 on a 31st-place Blackhawks team that set a franchise record with 53 losses and had a minus-111 goals differential.

Kurashev Vanished

Kurashev hasn't even been in the lineup for Switzerland's quarterfinal and semifinal games.

Kurashev posted just two assists in seven round-robin group contests, although he did score a deciding shootout goal in a 3-2 win over Czechia on May 13. The Swiss were led by established NHLers such as Fiala, Niederreiter, Nico Hischier and Roman Josi.

Heading into the IIHF Worlds, Bedard and Kurashev joked about how much fun they were going to have. Maybe they did, but it seemed muted.

Both wanted to score on on Blackhawks and Czech goalie Petr Mrazek in his home country. Neither got the chance, partly because the 32-year-old Mrazek was displaced as Czechia's top netminder by 23-year-old Lukas Dostal, who plays for the Anaheim Ducks.

"Stuff like that is always fun," Bedard said in April. "In an actual game, its a lot of fun and you're excited for that. You're competitive with everyone, but probably more competitive with you friends in whatever you do." See video.