Canada tip USA at World Sledge Hockey Challenge

The victory means Canada finishes in top spot in the preliminary round and will face Japan in Thursday’s late semi-final at 19:00 MST, while the Americans will take on Norway in the early game at 12:00 MST.

Adam Dixon scored once and added an assist to pull closer to the 100-point plateau for his career and Billy Bridges added a goal and a helper of his own to help Canada defeat the USA, 2-1, on Wednesday (5 November) in the final preliminary round game of the World Sledge Hockey Challenge.

The victory means Canada finishes in top spot in the preliminary round and will face Japan in Thursday’s late semi-final at 19:00 MST, while the Americans will take on Norway in the early game at 12:00 MST.

Bridges scored the eventual game-winner on a shorthanded break with four minutes left in the second period, helping Canada finish first in the round robin for the sixth time in as many tries at the tournament. The Canadians are a perfect 18-0 in preliminary round games.

Dixon opened the scoring midway through the first period as his seeing-eye shot from the point found its way past American goaltender Steve Cash.

The goal, coupled with his assist on Bridges’ winner, leaves Dixon with 98 career points, just two away from joining Bridges, Brad Bowden and Greg Westlake as the only players to record 100 points with Canada’s national sledge team.

The Americans made a late push, pulling to within one on captain Taylor Chace’s goal with 2:21 to go, but netminder Benoit St-Amand shut down the defending world champions, holding the USA to just nine shots on goal.

USA goaltender Steve Cash had 12 saves on the day.

In the day’s earlier game, Audun Bakke and Morten Værnes scored goals in a shootout as Norway wrapped up third place in the preliminary round with a 1-0 win over Japan.

After 50 minutes of scoreless hockey, Bakke converted the Norwegians’ first shootout attempt, snapping a shot up and over Mitsuru Nagase. Satoru Sudo pulled Japan even with a slick move, throwing the puck to his left stick before sliding a shot under Kjell Christian Hamar, but Værnes clinched the win with a goal similar to Bakke.

The goals by Bakke and Værnes, along with one from Japanese captain Sudo, were the only pucks to beat goaltenders Hamar of Norway and Nagase of Japan, who combined to turn away all 31 shots they faced in regulation time and overtime.

Norway had its chances in the first two periods, outshooting Japan, 13-5, but the third frame belonged to the Japanese, who held a 9-3 advantage in shots thanks in large part to a trio of power play opportunities.

The nine shots were three more than Japan had combined in its first two games, shutout losses to Canada and the USA The Japanese are still looking for their first goal of the tournament during regulation play; their scoring drought now sits at 140 minutes.

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Canada defeated arch-rival USA 2-1 in the final preliminary round game of the World Sledge Hockey Challenge.