Canada West 6, Latvia 0

• Conyr Hellyer (Okotoks, Alta./Okotoks, AJHL) and Sam Court (Winnipeg, Man./Brooks, AJHL) had a goal and an assist each for Canada West.  
• Tanner Willick (Saskatoon, Sask./Blackfalds, AJHL) and Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alta./Brooks, AJHL) both recorded two assists for Canada West.
• Erick Roest (Lethbridge, Alta./Sherwood Park, AJHL) made four saves before giving way to Andrew Ness (Winnipeg, Man./Fort McMurray, AJHL), who made one stop to complete the combined shutout.

United States 6, Canada East 1

• Garrett Schifsky led the way a goal and two assists for the U.S.
• Alex Bump, Quinn Finley and Joe Palodichuk had a goal and an assist each for the United States.
• Matthew Cato (Whitby, Ont./Trenton, OJHL) scored on the power play for Canada East.

Next games – Sunday, December 11:
• Latvia vs. Canada East – 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT
• Canada West vs. United States – 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT

Quotes:
“It has been an exciting few days since arriving in Cornwall, going through the process of selecting our group, finding the players we felt fit our identity. This game was a step in the right direction for us. Respect to Latvia, they battled hard as a young group with how they came out in the first 10 minutes of the game, they were physically invested. There were learning experiences for our group throughout the course of the game for how we need to grow and learn to be successful as the tournament moves on.”
• Canada West head coach Justin Falk (Snowflake, Man./Winkler, MJHL) on his team’s final preparations

“It all started with a big hit from [Aiden] Celebrini to get us going. Both of our power-play units got going through the game; when you score on the power play it gives you some good momentum. We identified some key points to focus on and we did a good job of that today. Everyone in our room is super proud to be here and excited to get the tournament started [on Sunday].”
• Hellyer on getting started as a team

“We are really happy of our effort tonight. We stuck with them for a good 40 minutes, but got a little loose in the third period. We have been bringing the guys together [in Cornwall] since day one. Our team shares the same beliefs and we all want to be the best team we can be. Moving forward we have to keep focused on the little things, the structure and trying to play connected as a group. We have a real good group of kids.”
• Canada East head coach Billy McGuigan (Summerside, P.E.I./Summerside, MHL) on bringing his team together

“We are on our way up; I think we are getting better as a team after a couple of practices. Everybody is starting to come together. Obviously, it was not the response we wanted tonight but in a couple of days we will be ready to go. [Scoring] helps build confidence, especially against the best players of the age group in the country.”
• Cato on building confidence as a team

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada will broadcast the bronze medal and gold medal games from the Cornwall Civic Complex; please check local listings for details. All preliminary round games will be livestreamed for purchase at HockeyCanada.ca/WJAC.

For more information on the 2022 World Junior A Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow through social media on Facebook and Twitter.