ST. LOUIS – Anton Jacobs-Webb scored the winning goal 13 seconds into the third period as Canada defeated the United States 4-2 on Friday night to launch a two-game mini-series between the two archrivals.
The game played outdoors at the Centene Community Ice Centre is a tune-up event for the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games this March in Beijing. The U.S. defeated Canada for gold at the 2018 Games and the teams have met in the last five world championships final with the Americans prevailing the last two editions.
“It was our first game since the world championship [in June], and I thought we played a solid game,’’ said Canada’s head coach Ken Babey. ‘’We had a bit of a breakdown in the second period, but overall we played the way we wanted to play and we took the pace to them.’’
Zach Lavin opened the scoring for Canada less than three minutes into the game while Liam Hickey, who contributed a goal and an assist to reach the 90-point career mark with Team Canada, made it 2-0 at 7:12 of the second.
“I came into (American) zone with Hickey and their defence moved up and pressured him, so that opened up some space for me,’’ said Lavin about the first goal. ‘’He gave me a beautiful pass and I was able to find the back of the net.”
But the Americans scored two goals within 13 seconds late in the second to dramatically tie the game.
Jacobs-Webb responded quickly in the third and James Dunn scored into an empty net in the last minute.
Hickey enjoyed the win and the unique experience of an outdoor game.
“It was a cool,’’ he said. ‘’It was really fun for us to play an outdoor game against our biggest rivals, and we need to take away the positives from tonight and build on those. We didn’t play our best game, but it is a good foundation.’’
The U.S. outshot Canada 18-9 with Dominic Larocque making 16 saves.
‘’We need to keep building our attack and moving the puck quicker,’’ added Babey. ‘’We played all our guys in all different situations, and everyone played well. We will keep building on that, we’ll get guys more experience and give the young players ice time, and let our veterans be leaders out there.”
The series concludes Saturday night at 9 p.m. (ET) The game can be livestreamed on HockeyTV with a subscription.
