TV: TSN | Stream: TSN Direct

Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team opens defence of its gold medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship with a tough test on Saturday, taking on its North American rivals from the United States.

LAST GAME

Canada closed out a perfect run at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship with a 5-3 win over Russia in the gold medal game. Shane Wright capped an outstanding tournament with two goals and an assist, bearking Connor McDavid’s Canadian record for most goals in a tournament, while 15-year-old Connor Bedard added a goal and an assist to his tally. Wright and Bedard co-led the Canadians with 14 points, one off the Canadian mark held by Tyson Jost.

The Americans last saw official game action on April 3, downing the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders 7-6 in their final United States Hockey League (USHL) game of the season. Rutger McGroarty led the offence with a goal and two helpers as the U.S. held off a furious push from the RoughRiders, who almost erased a five-goal deficit in the final seven minutes.

LAST MEETING

Canada and the U.S. last met in the bronze medal game at the 2019 U18 worlds, a 5-2 win for the Americans . Dylan Cozens and Nathan Légaré had the goals for the Canadians, while Nolan Maier made 36 saves in goal. Jack Hughes, Bobby Brink and Cam York had second-period goals for the U.S. to turn a 1-1 game into a 4-1 deficit for Canada.

That Canadian roster was one of the most star-studded to compete in the tournament, icing 13 NHL first-round picks – including No. 1 overall selection Alexis Lafrenière – and 14 players who would end up wearing the Maple Leaf at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship.

WHAT TO WATCH

With the cancellation of the 2020 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and Canada’s decision not to participate in the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, these Canadians are unfamiliar with each other, and with the Team Canada program. Other than Bedard, who returns for a second run at U18 gold and was part of the Canadian contingent at 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship, and underagers Lukas Dragicevic, Tanner Howe and Matthew Wood, who played at the 2021 Capital City Challenge last fall, none of the 25 players on the Canadian roster have worn the red and white in international competition, a pandemic-driven anomaly.

The U.S. certainly does not have that problem; the team has been together since the beginning of the season, playing a regular-season schedule in the USHL. In its biggest international competition of the season thus far, it dominated – the Americans outscored their opponents 30-5 in four games at the Five Nations Tournament in November, including a 9-2 win over Finland in the finale. That familiarity annually plays a major role for the Americans, who have won an unprecedented 10 U18 gold medals.

A LOOK BACK

This is the 17th meeting between the rivals at the U18 worlds, with the record skewing in favour of the U.S. – Canada has just four wins in the first 16 games (two in regulation, one in overtime and one in a shootout).

However, those two regulation wins have come in the last five meetings; Laurent Dauphin had a goal and an assist in the 2013 gold medal game as Canada downed the U.S. 3-2 to win its third world title, and Raphaël Lavoie scored twice to help Canada to a 6-4 victory in the tournament opener in 2018.

All-time record: United States leads 10-2-2-2-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T)
Canada goals: 38
United States goals: 71