USA win World Sledge Hockey Challenge gold

Overall, the Americans held a 9-8 advantage in shots on goal; the 17 combined shots set a World Sledge Hockey Challenge record for fewest shots by both teams in a single game.

American captain Taylor Chace scored the game’s only goal nine minutes into the second period, as the USA won their second World Sledge Hockey Challenge gold with a 1-0 victory over Canada on Saturday (8 December) in Calgary.

The only other American gold at the tournament came in 2009 in Charlottetown, when Chace scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 gold-medal game victory over the Canadians.

With game scoreless late into the second period this time, Chace’s shot along the ice from the point got past Canadian netminder Benoit St-Amand.

Canada’s best chance came midway through the third period, when captain Greg Westlake beat USA goaltender Steve Cash, but the puck was cleared off the line by back-checking American forward Declan Farmer, as it trickled toward the open net.

The game was a defensive struggle from the very start, as the North American rivals combined for just three shots in the first period, all off the sticks of American shooters. It marked just the second time in tournament history the Canadians had been held without a shot for an entire period.

Overall, the Americans held a 9-8 advantage in shots on goal; the 17 combined shots set a World Sledge Hockey Challenge record for fewest shots by both teams in a single game.

Both teams have now medalled at every World Sledge Hockey Challenge.

In the bronze-medal contest, Loyd Remi Solberg scored once in each period to complete a hat trick, helping Norway to third place with a 5-0 win over Japan.

This is the second year in a row the Norwegians have taken home bronze in Calgary; they beat Japan, 5-3, in the third-place game one year ago.

Magnus Bogle and Knut Andre Nordstoga scored the other goals for Norway, while Audun Bakke tied a tournament record with four assists.

After the two teams played a scoreless game through regulation and overtime in their preliminary round match-up, Solberg ensured that wouldn’t be the case Saturday, going under the crossbar on a breakaway just 1:15 in.

Bogle made it 2-0 near the end of the opening 15 minutes, knocking in his own rebound on a three-on-one, before Solberg and Nordstoga, on the power play, pushed the advantage to 4-0 through two periods.

Solberg’s hat trick goal was the only scoring in the third period.

Norwegian netminder Kjell Christian Hamar recorded his second shutout in as many starts against Japan this week, making nine saves, while his Japanese counterpart, Mitsuru Nagase, finished with 23 stops.

Japan went the entire tournament, a span of 230 minutes, without scoring a goal. Satoru Sudo, in the shootout against Norway on Wednesday, was the lone Japanese player to put the puck in the opposition goal.