Daily Herald Staff
Canada surrendered five third period goals, four of which were unanswered, in a 5-1 loss to HC Sparta Prague on Monday.
The loss knocked Canada out of the six-team tournament. Sparta Prague advances to face a team of U.S. Collegiate Selects in the semi-final.
The game was scoreless entering the third period, but Martins Dzierkls put HC Sparta Prague up 1-0 roughly seven minutes into the final frame.
Canada answered back roughly six minutes later on a goal from Matthew Peca, with assists to Brett Seney and Nikolas Brouillard. However, HC Sparta Prague retook the lead less than two minutes later on a goal from Filip Chlpik.
Sparta Prague then added two empty net goals in the final two minutes. David Nemecek iced the game by scoring a fifth goal with one second left.
Canada was looking for a record 17th Spengler Cup championship.
The tournament final is scheduled for Wednesday.
Canada defeats Latvia in OT at World Juniors
Latvia came close to repeating their upset over Canada at last year’s World Junior Tournament, but an overtime power play goal from Michael Hage ended that chance.
Hage’s one-timer 44 seconds into the extra frame clearly beat Latvian goaltender Nils Roberts Maurins to give Canada a 2-1 victory.
“It was a defensive game, totally different game than versus Czechia,” head coach Dale Hunter said in a press release. “Latvia is well coached, played a 1-2-2, stayed back and didn’t give up many odd-man rushes. It was a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game out there and it’s all about how you adapt to it.”
Canada fired 36 shots on goal during the first 60 minutes, but managed to put just one puck past Maurins. That came courtesy of Macklin, Sask. product Cole Reschny, whose power play goal 2:22 into the second period gave Canada a 1-0 lead.
The goal came less than a minute after Martins Klaucans received a five-minute major and game misconduct for a hit to the head.
However, the Latvians rallied in the third period, and tied the game up with less than two minutes left.
“I think Coach Hunter said it in the room, it was a cat-and-mouse game,” Team Canada captain Porter Martone said in a press release. “Latvia stuck in there really well and defended the middle hard. For us, it was about sticking to the game plan, and it was a huge goal from the power play at the end there to get us the win. We got the result we wanted and that is huge for our group heading into the off day.”
The win means Canada was still undefeated heading into Monday night’s contest with Denmark. The Canadians thumped Denmark 13-2 in a pre-tournament exhibition game, but Hunter said every game is important.
“We want to improve in all areas: power play, penalty kill, five-on-five,” he said. “We’ve been together a short time here, and in this tournament you hope one of your first two games isn’t your best game. You want to keep getting better.”
Results from Monday’s game were unavailable by press time.
