CALGARY, Alta. – Canada’s National Sledge Team will play for the bronze medal at the 2009 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship, following a 2-1 shootout loss to the United States on Wednesday in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Bradley Bowden (Orton, Ont.) was the lone Canadian player to score in the shootout. Canada forced overtime with a late goal in the third period. Marc Dorion (Bourget, Ont.) evened the score with just over one minute 30 seconds to play.

Canada will face Japan in Saturday’s bronze-medal game (9:30 a.m. ET), a game that can be seen live at www.paralympicsport.tv. The United States will face off against Norway in the gold medal game on Saturday (1 p.m. ET).

Note to media: Adam Crockatt, manager of Canada’s National Sledge Team, is on site in Czech Republic with Team Canada. All media enquiries should be sent to  [email protected]. Team Canada’s 2009 media guide is available at www.hockeycanada.ca as a PDF.

E-mail Your Favorite Player: Fans of Canada’s National Sledge Team can send messages to their favourite players by going to hockeycanada.ca and following the links to the 2009 IPC Sledge Hockey World Championship site.