LANDSHUT, Germany – Connor Bedard (North Vancouver, B.C./Regina, WHL) led Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team with a hat trick as part of an 8-3 win over Germany, giving the Canadians their first victory at the 2022 IIHF U18 World Championship.

Bedard set a pair of Canadian records in the win, surpassing Matthew Barzal as Canada’s all-time leading scorer at U18 worlds, and moving ahead of Shane Wright as Canada’s all-time leading goal scorer. Bedard now has 11 goals and 19 points in nine games at the tournament.

• David Goyette (Hawkesbury, Ont./Sudbury, OHL) and Grayden Siepmann (Abbotsford, B.C./Calgary, WHL) added a goal and an assist each.
• Kalem Parker (Clavet, Sask./Victoria, WHL) , Brayden Schuurman (Abbotsford, B.C./Victoria, WHL) and Matthew Wood (Nanaimo, B.C./Victoria, BCHL) rounded out the scoring.
• Rieger Lorenz (Calgary, Alta./Okotoks, AJHL) chipped in with a pair of assists.
• Nolan Lalonde (Kingston, Ont./Erie, OHL) made 33 saves.
• Canada outshot Germany 49-36.

Next Game:
Canada vs. Czechia – Tuesday, April 26 (9:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. PT)

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast 13 games throughout the tournament, including all Team Canada preliminary-round games, four quarterfinals, both semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.

Quotes:
“It was nice to get the 4-0 lead, but then it was also nice to face some adversity. The crowd got going and they scored a couple of goals and we had to go through that, which is good for our team. We responded the right way, killed off some penalties and got the win from there. I thought [Germany] did a great job trying to be physical against us and I thought our guys handled it really good. I thought we were really disciplined tonight, which was our plan going in. That first hit of the game woke us up a little bit, but then we got going after that.”
- Head coach Nolan Baumgartner (Calgary, Alta.) on his team’s performance and being tested by Germany

“I think everyone’s a leader, it’s just throughout the year I’ve tried to round out my game a little more and being physical can be part of it. You don’t want to be hitting too much, but getting physical and chippy gets you into the game, I think.”
- Bedard on leadership and his playing style

“Obviously in the pre-scout, we realized they like to collapse when they get into the zone, so in the first I found two guys up top, trailing, and capitalized. In the second, Schuurman made a good play in the neutral zone play and we were able to score again.”
- Lorenz on his line contributing with three goals

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow along via social media on Facebook and Twitter.