There was plenty of talent on display in the late game in Landshut on the opening day of the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship. And while Canadian captain Connor Bedard made a couple of amazing plays that led to goals, that was overshadowed by several multi-point performances on the American side, starting with Isaac Howard’s four goals. In the end, the Americans skated off with a convincing 8-3 victory, serving notice to the tournament that their fifth-place finish last year was an aberration for a tournament that they often dominate.
“It feels great,” said U.S. defenceman Ryan Chesley, who had a goal and an assist. “Obviously, there’s a big rivalry between the two so it always feels good beating them.”
Despite the result, Canadian head coach Nolan Baumgartner knows that there is still a long way to go in the tournament.
“We only got together three days ago, had one really good practice in with our whole team here and they’ve been playing together for two years,” the Canadian coach said about the two teams. “They already know their systems but, for us, we just want to get better every day and be at our best when we hit that quarter-final game.”
“It’s been a pretty hectic week, but I think we have a great group of guys here and we’re adapting pretty quick,” said Canadian defenceman Spencer Sova.
Howard scored the only two goals of the first period, scored the last of seven goals in a wild second period, and then rounded out the scoring midway through the third.
“It’s definitely nice,” said Howard. “Just playing with great linemates, just finding me and sliding into soft areas and today it was just capitalizing on that.”
With the teams skating 4-on-4 just over four minutes in, Howard forced a turnover just inside the Canadian blueline by getting his stick on an outlet pass attempt. Lane Hudson jumped on the loose puck and carried the puck to the net. After faking a shot, he found Howard trailing and he swept it in without stopping the puck.
“Hutson’s such a smart player, so I know the moment he realized that defenceman didn’t have a stick, he’d just slide it to me on the backside and he found me,” said Howard.
Howard’s second came with just over a minute to go in the opening frame. Frank Nazar carried the puck into the Canadian zone and passed to Howard, who shot from the high slot. Dyck made the save but the rebound came right back to Howard, who one-timed it from the mid slot.
“He’s got a really unique ability to finish,” U.S. coach Adam Nightingale said about Howard. “I liked how he created those goals by playing tenacious and getting to the inside. He’s a threat every time he’s on the ice.”
Canada tied the game up with two goals 1:13 apart early in the second period. Bedard made a fantastic play on the first goal to lift the stick of Seamus Powell behind the net to receive the puck, and then with his back to the net, passed the puck between his legs out front to Matthew Wood, who fired it home. Then Mathew Ward tied it on a penalty shot, slipping the puck between Augustine’s legs on the backhand.
“The biggest positive for me is the guys competed, it didn’t matter what the score was,” said Baumgartner. “I thought that was huge. When you do that, you never feel like you’re out of the game and good things can happen.”
After seeing their first two-goal lead disappear quickly, the Americans gained it back even quicker around the game’s midpoint. First Cooley coolly worked a give-and-go on a 2-on-1 with Cutter Gauthier to make it 3-2, and then 49 seconds later, Cruz Lucious put a nice touch on Ryan Chelsea’s long-range backhander.
Already once in the game, Bedard had made an amazing play to cut into the American lead, and at 31:43 he did it again. After buzzing around the attacking zone all shift, the 16-year-old Regina Pats star took a pass from Nick Moldenhauer in the high slot, held onto the puck until it seemed like he had no angle left, and then somehow found some room over Augustine’s glove and under the crossbar to make it a 4-3 game.
“You can tell he’s a real special player,” Nightingale said about Bedard. “The play he made where he stripped our D and quick-attacked the slot ... that’s a pro play. And to wait out our goalie on the one, I feel like Bedard’s a guy who scores that nine times out of 10. He made it look pretty easy.”
However, for the last eight minutes of the second period, the USA returned to dominating the game and hemming the Canadians in their own zone for long stretches of time. They also scored twice more to open up a three-goal lead.
Nazar got the play started on the fifth U.S. goal by driving to the net with the puck. Dyck made the save and Howard had a glorious chance to complete his hat trick on the rebound but misplayed the puck and was knocked down. However, with Howard and a Canadian defenceman still on the ice in front of the net, Ryan Chesley picked off a Canadian clearing attempt and fired it past the bodies and into the open side.
“I had it on my stick and I was trying to go to my backhand and at the last second someone slashed it away,” Howard laughed. “And then ‘Ches’ here came and cleaned up the garbage and put it in.”
“I just knew the goalie was out of position so I tried to get it off my stick quick and it ended up in the net,” said Chesley.
Howard did, finally, get his third of the game with 1:23 to go in the period. Left uncovered in front of the net, he one-timed Hunter Brzustewicz’s pass from the corner past Dyck.
The USA added two more in the third. Cole Spicer scored the seventh goal with 10:45 to go, and then just over a minute later, Howard scored his fourth similar to how he scored his first – one-timing a feed from Hutson.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way today but the next few will,” said Sova. “We’ve got a lot of growth to do as a team but I feel that if we play them again (later in the tournament), it will be a lot closer game.”
There’s no rest for the Americans, who after playing the late game face Czechia tomorrow afternoon. Canada takes on host Germany tomorrow evening.
