Canada and USA wrapped up their respective pre-tournament schedules against each other in a close-fought 6-5 USA overtime win. The shots were 43-28 in favor of Canada.
Ryan Leonard-WSH was named player of the game for the USA, scoring two of their six goals. Jorian Donovan-OTT who arrived from North America the morning of the game was named Canada’s top player. Hockey Canada announced on Saturday that Tanner Molendyk and Tristan Luneau would not participate in the world juniors due to injury; Dorian and Ty Nelson were added to the roster.
ROSTER UPDATE | Jorian Donovan and Ty Nelson have been added to 🇨🇦’s National Junior Team for the pic.twitter.com/IkPy78KN6g
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) December 23, 2023
2024 eligible Macklin Celebrini scored two goals for Canada as well. Isaac Howard-TBL recorded two primary assists.
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Lane Hutson (MTL) shines
Hutson has been a dominant college player in his first one and a half seasons in school. He wasn’t that good versus Sweden two days ago but was very good today against Canada. He scored a great overtime goal and made a high-end stretch pass to Quinn Finley that led to USA’s first goal. On top of the points, Hutson showed more of his trademark elusive skating and skill that led to a lot of puck possession and scoring chances.
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Boston College line
The line of Will Smith-SJS in between Gabe Perreault-NYR and Ryan Leonard-WSH has officially been listed as USA’s third line, but at even strength they’ve arguably been their best trio. Smith and Perreault have incredible IQ and skill and Leonard always seems to find a way to be in position to use his speed and skill to take advantage of the plays they make. They are making a case when the real games start to be leaned-on players for the American coaching staff.
Thoughts on Canada
A lot of the themes from the first pre-tournament game appeared: Macklin Celebrini was a leading player for Canada, and their checking line of Owen Beck-MTL in between Owen Allard (draft eligible) and Nate Danielson-DET stood out again. Canada will love the second-half pressure they put on USA, but outside of Celebrini I didn’t notice many of their other top offensive weapons being consistently dangerous at even strength outside of maybe Conor Geekie (ARI).
Goaltending questions
Canada and the USA had some uncertainty coming into the tournament as to who their No. 1 goalie will truly be. Leaving the pre-tournament, that remains the case. No goaltender on their team truly stood out and the round robin will have to be used to make a decision on who starts in the quarter finals January 2.
The tournament begins December 26.
Schedule:
6:00 a.m. ET: Slovakia vs. Czechia
8:30 a.m.: Finland vs. Canada
11:00 a.m.: USA vs. Norway
1:30 p.m.: Sweden vs. Latvia
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(Photo of Lane Hutson at the world championships earlier this year: AP Photo / Pavel Golovkin)