TV: TSN | Stream: TSN Direct

Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team heads into the final game of the preliminary round with the same 1-1 record as Czechia, both looking for a win to secure second spot in Group A and a last-change advantage for the quarterfinals at the 2022 IIHF U18 World Championship.

LAST GAME

Though Canada never trailed in its 8-3 win over Germany on Sunday, there were still some tense moments. After pulling ahead 4-0 in the second period, thanks in part to the first of Connor Bedard’s three goals, Canada gave up three in a row to Germany, allowing the hosts and their home crowd to get back into the game. But Bedard rattled off two goals in just over a minute to put the game out of reach. Nolan Lalonde made 33 saves in the win.

Czechia has had similar results to Canada so far, picking up its win over Germany before suffering a 6-2 loss to the United States on Sunday. Jiri Kulich opened the scoring on a first-period penalty shot, but a four-goal second period by the U.S. sunk the Czechs. Lukas Plos added a consolation goal in the third, and Michael Schnattinger finished with 33 saves.

LAST MEETING

Canada and Czechia seem to meet most years at U18 worlds, and 2021 was no exception, with the red and white recording a 10-3 win in the quarterfinals. That was another banner game for Bedard, one of just a handful of Canadians to make a repeat appearance at a U18 worlds. He had two goals and three assists, and the Canadians chased Czech goaltender Tomas Suchanek from the net after just seven minutes and three goals.

WHAT TO WATCH

How about one more on Bedard? The Canadian captain has been red hot, posting four goals and five points through two games to surpass Matt Barzal as Canada’s all-time leading scorer at U18 worlds and Shane Wright as Canada’s all-time leading goal scorer. So what’s next? Bedard is two assists back of Cody Hodgson for that Canadian mark, and could start to climb the tournament scoring lists with a few more multi-point performances (although Alexander Ovechkin’s goal-scoring record of 23 [!] is probably safe). And he’s still eligible to come back in 2023!

The Czechs are still looking to find their game at five-on-five. Of the six goals they’ve scored through their first two games, three have come on the power play and another was on a penalty shot. If the Canadians can stay out of the penalty box (their 39 PIMs are second-most through two games), it should be able to dictate the play.

A LOOK BACK

This will be the 16th meeting between Canada at Czechia at the U18 worlds, and the previous 15 have been a mixed bag of results for the Canadians – seven regulation wins, an overtime victory, four regulation losses and two overtime defeats.

In addition to the 10-3 win last year, Canada has picked up a victory in the meeting prior to that. In 2019, Canada also closed out the preliminary round against Czechia, finishing with a 6-2 victory on the strength of goal-and-assist efforts from Alex Newhook, Jamieson Rees, Dylan Holloway and Philip Tomasino.

All-time record: Canada leads 7-1-2-4-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T)
Canada goals: 56
Czechia goals: 36