Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage saved the day for Canada on Saturday when he scored in overtime to give the country a 2-1 win over Latvia.
On paper, Team Canada should have steamrolled Latvia at the World Junior Championships on Saturday afternoon, but hockey is played on the ice and not on paper. Last year, the Baltic state pulled off a massive upset when it beat Canada 3-2 in the shootout.
Clearly, its players wanted to pull off another surprise on Saturday, and they very nearly did. Canada might have dominated in puck possession and shots, but it was a hard-fought battle which the favourites couldn’t win in regulation.
It took Canada 22 minutes to beat the goaltender Nils Maurins (Montreal Canadiens’ prospect Mikus Vecvanags acted as backup), and they needed a power play to do it. Cole Reschny managed to find the back of the net thanks to assists from Gavin McKenna and Harrison Brunicke.
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The Canadians were unable to score another goal in regulation, and while Latvia hung on for dear life for most of the game, it still found an equalizer with less than two minutes to go. Rudolfs Berzkalins got the puck past Jack Ivankovic to send everyone back to square one.
Unfortunately for Latvia, though, with less than a minute to go, they picked up a delay of the game penalty when they sent the puck directly out of bounds. They still managed to hang on to take the game to overtime, but Canada scored just 44 seconds into the extra frame when Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage was sent a picture-perfect pass near the faceoff dot by Gavin McKenna. The center wasted no time one-timing it in to give Canada two points, which means they now have five points in two games and are first in Group B.
Speaking after the game, Hage said it was a dream come true to play for his country and that he was happy the goal went in to bring his team some relief.
However, Finland has a game in hand and could overtake the Canadians on Sunday when it takes on Switzerland.
Canada needed the win not only to earn points in the standings but also to take the spotlight away from the fact that its players showed poor sportsmanship on Friday, exiting the ice without shaking hands with Czechia’s players after their 7-5 win. Hockey Canada issued an apology on Saturday, but the harm had already been done.
The Canadians have a day off on Sunday, and they’ll be back in action on Monday when they’ll take on Denmark, a team they beat 13-2 in a pre-tournament exhibition game.
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