Canada Red takes silver medal at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge

Canada Red has finished with the silver medal at the 2022 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, falling 11-3 to the United States in the gold medal game on Saturday night, Nov. 12, at the Langley Events Centre.

Porter Martone scored twice and Nathan Villeneuve added a power play marker for Canada Red, which briefly got to within two midway through the second period before the Americans pulled away for their sixth U17 gold medal.

Cole Eiserman led the way for the United States with three goals – finishing with a tournament-high 12 – and three assists. James Hagens had two goals and three assists, finishing atop the tournament scoring race with 21 points.

📸 | Frame by frame. Wrapping things up in Langley.
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— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) November 13, 2022

“We liked the way we started the game; we were playing well. Their goalie made some big saves when we had a power play early on,” said Canada Red head coach Greg Walters. “We thought we were playing a really good hockey game. We made one bad turnover and then the game kind of spiraled away from us.”

“This has been an amazing experience. There is nothing like playing against the best players in the world,” said Canada Red captain Berkly Catton. “I learned a lot from my teammates and coaches, and talking to the people around the event has been an unreal experience.”

Canada Black finished fourth after losing the bronze medal match earlier on Saturday, a 7-1 decision to Finland.

Finland led 3-0 after one period and took a four-goal lead nine seconds into the second before Lukas Karmiris scored the lone goal for Canada Black. It’s the second bronze for the Finns at the tournament, and first since 1998.

“We put ourselves in a tough spot. Hockey is a game of emotion and with teenage kids there are ups and downs. Unfortunately for us the game started with a quick down, and it was difficult to recover from there,” said Canada Black head coach Mark O’Leary. “We did not quit, we kept playing, but it was a tough game from start to finish.”

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Following the gold medal game, the tournament all-star team was announced. Catton, Eiserman and Hagens comprise the forwards, Sam Dickinson from Canada Black and Henry Mews from Canada White are the defencemen and Canada Red’s Gabriel D’Aigle is the goaltender.