Canadians split first two games at Canadian Tire Para Hockey Cup

LONDON, Ont. – Team Canada may be bent but they are not broken after a 3-0 loss Monday night to arch-rival USA at the Canadian Tire Para Hockey Cup taking place this week at the Western Fair Sports Centre.

The Canadian Para ice hockey team opened the tournament Sunday with a resounding 7-0 win over South Korea. Tyler McGregor from nearby Forest, Ont., notched the hat trick, James Dunn added a goal and three assists while Corbyn Smith, Micah Kovacevich and Cody Dolan also scored once.

Game two was a rematch of last winter’s gold medal final at the Paralympic Winter Games. The Canadians iced a line-up with nine new players from the PyeongChang team that took silver.

“I thought in the first period, it could have gone either way,’’ said Canada’s head coach Ken Babey about Monday’s game against the Americans. ‘’It seemed to me that once they got their second goal it deflated us a bit. I think it’s all a part of the learning experience, and I saw some good things with the team, especially with some of our players that are new to the lineup.”

Liam Hickey, who has switched to defence from forward this season, says this tournament is far from over. The Americans have won the event, previously called the World Sledge Hockey Challenge, four straight years.

‘’We know that when we execute that we’re a solid hockey team and we just need to get back to that,’’ said Hickey. ‘’We’re confident as a team, we’re going to take this loss and learn from it and move on.” 

The tournament continues tonight with the Americans against South Korea at 7 p.m. Canada faces the Koreans again on Wednesday December 5 at noon and the U.S the following evening at 7 p.m. The championship game is Saturday December 8 at 4 p.m. and will be broadcast live on TSN5. 

For more information: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/team-canada/men/para-hockey/2018-phc