Team Canada knocks off Czechia for the second year in a row, takes home 3rd consecutive gold medal at U18 tournament.
Another Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament has come and gone, and Team Canada finds themselves at the summit once again.
Despite the lowest scoring game of the tournament for Canada by a wide margin, the hosts were able to hang on for just over 40 minutes in the gold-clinching game.
After an early goal by Liam Kilfoil, Cameron Schmidt assisted on a Caleb Desnoyers marker to bump up the lead to two and that was all the scoring until the final eight seconds of the game; Czechia got one on the power play, but it was too little too late.
This marks the 25th gold medal by Team Canada in tournament history, and the third in a row.
Three WHLers finished in the top 10 tournament-wide for points, including Cole Reschny and Vit Zahejsky with seven each, and Gavin McKenna with six. Between the pipes, Portland Winterhawks goaltender Ondrej Stebetak finished third tournament-wide in both save percentage (0.947) and goals against average (1.27).
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