Canada wins the silver medal at Para ice hockey worlds

The U.S. wins the final 5-1
can usa final 2021

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – Canada is headed home with the silver medal from the 2021 World Para Ice Hockey Championships after a 5-1 loss to the USA in Saturday’s final.

The Americans dominated the game bombarding Canadian goaltender Dominic Larocque with 39 shots. Larocque produced a spectacular performance and was named Canada’s player of the game.

“That was probably our best game we’ve ever played against Canada since I’ve been on the national team in nine years,” said American forward Declan Farmer, who scored twice. 

Billy Bridges scored the lone Canadian goal on the power play late in the first period to cut the American lead to 2-1. The U.S. added two more in the second and one in the third to successfully defend its world crown.

“Overall, I thought we had a great tournament, especially with the depleted line-up we had,’’ said Canadian forward Tyler McGregor. Rob Armstrong and James Dunn were out of the line-up due to injury.

‘’There are a lot of positives we can take from our effort despite the result tonight. We cannot dwell on this. We need to focus on the big picture as we look ahead to the Paralympics and trying to grow and improve as a team.”

Canada was looking for its first world crown since 2017.

“It was a really tough game and not the way we wanted to play,’’ said Canada’s captain Greg Westlake. “We have such a great group of guys, and no one’s spirit is broken in our locker room. We are going to take the positives from this, and at the end of the day we still believe we are on the right path as we head into Beijing.”

Larocque was also named top goaltender of the tournament while Liam Hickey was named top defenceman.

By reaching the final, Canada officially earned a berth for next year’s Paralympic Winter Games.

The Russian Paralympic Committee blanked South Korea 7-0 for the bronze.