Canada, USA victorious at World Sledge Hockey Challenge

The USA win 3-2 against Russia in a replay of the Sochi 2014 final, and Canada beat South Korea in an 8-0 rout in Leduc, Canada. 02 Feb 2015
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Ice sledge hockey Canada

The Canada team celebrates winning the Ice Sledge Hockey Bronze Medal match between Canada and Norway at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games

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By Hockey Canada

The first clashes of the 2015 World Sledge Hockey Challenge got underway on Sunday (21 February), with a win for Paralympic champions the USA over Russia and victory for hosts Canada against South Korea.

The USA, Russia and Canada are in Leduc, Canada, ahead of the 2015 IPC Ice sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool in Buffalo, USA, whilst South Korea will head to Ostersund, Sweden, for the B-Pool equivalent in March.

USA v Russia: 3-2

Declan Farmer broke a 2-2 tie with less than two minutes to go, and the United States repelled a late comeback attempt to top Russia 3-2 in the opening game.

The game was a rematch of the gold medal game at last year’s Paralympic Winter Games, where the US blanked the host Russians 1-0 to win their second consecutive Paralympic gold.

Brody Roybal and Kevin McKee scored the other goals for the USA, who held a two-goal lead midway through the second period before the Russians battled back to pull even.

Evgeny Petrov and Vasily Varlakov were the goal scorers for Russia. Petrov, the Russian captain, left the ice on a stretcher early in the third period with an apparent lower-body injury. His status for the rest of the tournament is up in the air.

The American power play struck quickly; Roybal finished off a feed from Nikko Landeros just past the 10-minute mark of the first period, the lone goal in the opening frame. McKee doubled the lead 7:05 into the second, bursting around the Russian defence and snapping a shot off the far post and past goaltender Vladimir Kamentsev to make it 2-0. Kamentsev was the story for Russia, making 17 stops, a number of them of the point-blank variety.

Petrov pulled the Russians to within a goal late in the second, stick-handling under his sled before ripping a left-handed shot to the short-side of US netminder Steve Cash to cut the American lead to 2-1. Russia’s penalty killers took over in the third, keeping the US at bay on an 83-second five-on-three advantage, and Varlakov tied the game with just 4:07 left, beating Cash high to the blocker side from the top of the face-off circles just 19 seconds after the teams returned to even strength.

The Russian momentum was short-lived, however, as Farmer capitalised after the USA kept the puck in at the offensive blue-line, chipping a shot that snuck past Kamentsev and over the goal-line for the winner.

Shots on goal finished even, 20-20.

Canada v South Korea: 8-0

Brad Bowden scored twice and added two assists to pace the offence, and Canada’s National Sledge Team earned an 8-0 win over South Korea in its opening game at the 2015 World Sledge Hockey Challenge.

Bowden opened and closed the scoring for the Canadians, who controlled the game from start to finish, converting a touchdown by the end of the second period and holding a 25-10 advantage in shots on goal.

Tyler McGregor also scored twice for Canada, while Adam Dixon, Marc Dorion, Ben Delaney and Kevin Rempel added one each.

Corbin Watson got the start in the Canadian goal and stopped all eight shots he faced before giving way to Dominic Larocque to begin the third period.

Larocque, who made his debut between the pipes after four years as a forward, finished with two saves.

It was South Korea that had the very early chance to open the scoring. Seung-Hwan Jung found himself all alone with Watson just 15 seconds after the puck dropped, but fired wide on the breakaway.

Bowden got the scoring started at 7:13, going under his sled before tucking the puck around Korean netminder Man-Gyun Yu, and Dixon snapped a shot past Yu just 28 seconds later for a quick 2-0 lead.

Dorion made it a three-goal lead late in the first period, driving to the net and redirecting a feed from Dixon past Yu.

The second period was much of the same, starting with Delaney banging in the rebound of a McGregor shot just 2:02 into the middle frame.

McGregor scored his first on the power play at 10:10, Rempel made it 6-0 from in close at 12:32 and McGregor got his second at 12:51 when his shot hit a Korean defender and bounced past Yu to send the Canadians to the dressing room up 7-0 after two.

Canada slowed the tempo in the third, directing only five shots at Yu, and Bowden’s second, on the power play at 9:08, capped the scoring.

The Canadians will look to keep their perfect start intact when they take on Russia on Monday night (7pm MT), while South Korea will be back on the ice at the Leduc Recreation Centre for the day’s matinee, meeting the USA (12pm MT).

All preliminary round games, as well as the semi-finals and bronze medal game, will be available through FASTHockey webcasts.

The gold medal game will air on TSN/RDS, the official broadcasters of Hockey Canada.

Games can also be followed at www.facebook.com/worldsledge and www.twitter.com/hc_wshc.