TORONTO, Ont. – Canada’s
National Sledge Team has won the gold medal at the 2013 World Sledge Hockey
Challenge, beating the United States 3-1 in Saturday night’s gold medal game at
the MasterCard Centre for Hockey Excellence.
It is the fifth time Canada has
won gold at the tournament; it also took home the top prize in November 2011 in
Calgary, Alta., April 2011 in London, Ont., 2008 in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and
2007 in Kelowna, B.C., in addition to claiming the silver medal in 2009 in
Charlottetown and last year in Calgary.
On Saturday night, Billy
Bridges (Summerside, P.E.I.) and Greg Westlake (Oakville, Ont.) scored goals 32
seconds apart and added an assist each in a three-goal first period, as the
Canadians did all of their scoring in a span of 3:52 of the opening frame. Adam
Dixon (Midland, Ont.) had the other goal for Canada, while Brad Bowden (Orton,
Ont.) added two assists.
Canada finished first in the
preliminary round with a perfect 3-0 record, including wins over Korea (5-2),
Russia (5-3) and the U.S. (4-1). The Americans came second at 2-1, followed by
Russia (1-2) and Korea (0-3).
Earlier Saturday, Evgeny Petrov
scored the winner with just 1:11 to go as Russia earned the bronze medal with a
4-2 win over Korea. Dmitriy Lisov had two goals, and Alexey Amosov added one for
the Russians who, like the Koreans, were making their World Sledge Hockey
Challenge debut this year.
The tournament is the last
major international event before the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, which will be
held March 7-16 in Sochi, Russia.
