Jack Hughes and Team USA won the bronze medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship by defeating Canada 5-2 earlier today. Hughes had a goal and two assists.
The US got on the board early on the power play. Canada’s Jamieson Rees got sent off for tripping at 6:56 of the first period and Alex Turcotte, set up by Hughes, converted to make it 1-0 USA at 8:03.
Canada would return the favor before the first period was over, also scoring on the power play to tie the game up. Trevor Zegras of the US was off for slashing while the Americans were on the power play. That made it 4-on-4 for about 53 seconds (Canada’s Dylan Holloway was called for a trip at 15:59) and when that expired, the Canadians had the man advantage. Dylan Cozens then scored at 19:06 to even the score at one.
But the US would take control in the second period. First, Hughes scored at 6:54 to make it 2-1 USA. Bobby Brink added a power play goal at 12:59 to make it 3-1 and Cam York scored while the US was on a 5-on-3 power play to make it 4-1.
York added another one on the power play in the third to make it 5-1. Nathan Legare of Canada scored with six seconds remaining in the game to make it 5-2 but that was just window dressing. The USA had wrapped up the bronze medal.
In goal, Nolan Maier made 36 saves on 41 shots for Canada while Spencer Knight stopped 21 of 23 for the Americans.
Jack Hughes finished the game with the goal and two assists for three points, five shots on goal and an even plus/minus rating.
He finishes the tournament as the leading scorer with nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points, eight penalty minutes and a plus-10 plus/minus. According to Marc Ciampa of NewJerseyDevils.com, Hughes’ 14 goals and 18 assists over the last two of these tournaments gives him a tournament record 32 points over 14 games. Alex Ovechkin previously held the record with 31 points over 14 games over two years. Ciampa also said that Hughes’ 20 points this tournament left him one shy of the single tournament record of 21 , set by Nikita Kucherov. Those are some lofty heights and big names Hughes is running with there.
In addition, Hughes was named to the Media All-Star Team for the tournament, joining teammates Cole Caufield (forward) and Cam York (defense) along with goalie Yaroslav Askarov (Russia), defenseman Philip Broberg (Sweden) and forward Rodion Amirov (Russia) on the team. Caufield was named tournament MVP.
While all of that was going on in Sweden, Joctan Chainey’s Halifax Mooseheads were back in North America taking their series with the Drummondville Voltigeurs four games to one with a 2-1 overtime win in game six.
Arnaud Durandeau gave Halifax the 1-0 lead when he scored from Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Chainey 8:28 into the first. It remained this way until the 12:50 mark of the second when Gregor MacLeod scored to tie things for Drummondville. From there, we settled into almost two full periods of scoreless, nail-biting hockey.
When regulation ended with the game tied at one apiece, it was off to OT. And it would only take 2:22 of play for Xavier Parent to score the game-winner from Joel Bishop and Keith Getson to give the Mooseheads the 2-1 win and the series.
Each team only had one power play (both going 0-for-1), as the refs let the boys play. There was the Halifax power play plus matching minors in teh first period and the Drummondville power play occurring in the second. And that was it.
In goal, the Voltigeurs’ Anthony Morrone stopped 27 of 29 shots in 62:22 of work in going on to be named the game’s second star. Mooseheads goalie Alexis Gravel was named the first star, stopping 33 of 34 shots against also in 62:22. Parent was named the game’s third star with the game-winning goal.
Chainey had the assist for a point, was a plus-1 plus/minus and had a shot on goal in the game.
Halifax, who will be hosting the Memorial Cup next month, will now move on to play for the President Cup, facing the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The final series will start Thursday, May 2 at Arena Iamgold.
Over in the Ontario Hockey League, the Ottawa 67’s are still awaiting their opponents in the OHL Final since the Guelph Storm have come back to force a game seven with the Saginaw Spirit. Game seven of that series will take place on Monday at Saginaw with the winner going on to face the 67’s in the Final.