Canada finishes preliminary round 3-0 in Para ice hockey

Canada’s Para Hockey Team went undefeated through preliminary-round play and booked its ticket to the semifinals at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games with an 8-0 win over Norway Monday afternoon in Gangneung, South Korea. 

 
Canada outshot its opponents 35-0 through three games, allowing just 11 shots on goal.  
 
–    Rob Armstrong (Erin, Ont.) and Billy Bridges (Summerside, P.E.I.) scored two goals each in the victory for Canada.  Brad Bowden (Orton, Ont.), Liam Hickey (St. John’s, N.L.), Tyler McGregor (Forest, Ont.), and Greg Westlake (Toronto) tallied the other Canadian goals.

–    Steve Arsenault (Spruce Grove, Alta.), Dominic Cozzolino (Mississauga, Ont.), and Adam Dixon (Midland, Ont.) had a pair of assists each.

–    Dominic Larocque (Quebec City, Que.) picked up the win for Canada having to make just five saves in the game

Next game:
Canada will wait for the end of preliminary-round action Tuesday to find out who they will face in the semifinals.

Quotes: 
 
“Norway is a good team, and they play a defensive style. It took some second efforts from guys like Bowden and Armstrong to open it up for us and we were able to get rolling. We expected this from Norway, they’re a good team and play a defensive style and their goaltender played outstanding. Our guys stuck together, played as a team and we were able to get out of penalty trouble. Dom (Larocque) came and made a couple of saves, it was good and the guys played a clean game.”
            – Ken Babey, head coach, Canada’s Para Hockey Team
 
“I think I just need to keep working to my skill set and place that into the team system. Whatever they need me to do – if that means getting in the corner, getting a pass out, that’s what I hope to do; just work within my skill set and not change anything.”
            – Armstrong on his contributions to the team 
 
“We wanted to pay attention to our defensive game, and our offense has been working well with everyone getting involved. I thought today we faced a little adversity, Norway has played us tough in the past and they clog up the middle. We had to figure out how to create chances; we were able to do that and we had a good second period, we found a way to get guys in front and create chances.”
            – Tyler McGregor on the team’s effort against Norway