Canada clips Czechia 3-1, advances to Para Cup gold-medal final

CHARLOTTETOWN — Liam Hickey, Vincent Boily and Tyler McGregor took care of the offence and Canada’s national para hockey team’s defence took care of the rest en route to a 3-1 semifinal victory over Czechia on Friday in the Para Cup at the Bell Aliant Centre.

Canada will meet the United States in Saturday’s gold-medal final after the Americans whipped China 13-2 in the other semifinal.

Trailing 2-0, Filip Vesely scored Czechia’s lone goal at 3:35 of the third period. Boily had scored 85 seconds earlier to give Canada a 2-0 lead. McGregor restored Canada’s two-goal cushion at 6:33 of the third. It was McGregor’s team-leading sixth goal of the tournament. Dominic Cozzolino chipped in with two assists.

Canada outshot Czechia 22-9 and went 0-for-1 on the power play. Czechia went 0-for-3 on the power play.

“We went into this game believing that it was going to take investment into the process because of how stingy and hard the Czechs play against us,” said Canadian bench boss Russ Herrington.

“It was a reminder throughout to just keep playing the right way, keep doing the right things and allow the game to open up when it will open up. If you try and force things against a team like (Czechia), that is dangerous for us. It was really about patience, that we needed to be ready to capitalize on the chances and, luckily, we did that enough to get the victory.”

POKE CHECKS: Declan Farmer, Evan Nichols and Brody Roybal all scored hat tricks for the U.S. against China. The U.S. led 3-2 after the first period, then scored four in the second period to take control.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2024.