WJAC Round Robin Concludes With USA Defeating Canada East

It didn't have as much scoring as the game earlier in the day, but the United States won't mind it as they finished with a 3-1 victory over Canada East on Tuesday at the World Junior A Challenge.

It didn’t take much time for the Americans to infiltrate the Canadian arena with an early goal. After a couple chance on the power-play, Nick Swaney gave USA the advantage at 7:39 in the first, blasting a wrist shot past Stefano Cantali and in for the 1-0 lead.

Canada wasn’t a fan of that, so they potted one of their own. At 13:10, Bobby Dow, who was ejected from Sunday’s game against the Czech’s for running over their goaltender, did a good job of playing the puck behind the net. Then, when he had a quick opening, he skated in front of the net and backhanded it over Dayton Rasmussen and in to match the score at one each.

The Americans, however, would retake their lead into the first intermission. With two minutes to go, Isaac Johnson skated in after a faceoff and flicked it over Cantali, giving the Americans the 2-1 lead.

The second period was a rather conservative period for the two teams at hand. For the Americans, they played a sound defensive game that kept the action away from the net, knowing that another goal or two could make their tournament even tougher before getting to the playoff round on Wednesday. For Canada, they just didn’t seem to have their legs in the game but were hoping for a better end to the game in the third frame.

The third pace was rather dull, with neither team really contributing much to the scoresheet. The Americans did, however, get one with 4:29 left in the third when a giveaway by the Canadians allowed Collin Adams to chip in a backhand to put his team up by two. It was enough to secure the victory, as the United States were able to down Canada East by a score of 3-1.

With the win, all three teams in Group B will finish with one win and one loss in the round robin. With a three-way tie, the Czech's, who beat USA 1-0 on Monday, will get the bye to the semi-finals on Thursday thanks to a goal-differential tie-breaker. USA and Canada will have to settle for the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Follow me on Twitter, @StevenEllisNHL.

 

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