Hlinka Gretzky Cup Recap: Canada 4, Finland 1

Scott Ratzlaff turned aside 23 of 24 shots he faced as Canada booked a ticket to the Hlinka Gretzky Cup gold medal game.

GAME STATISTICS | LIVE GAME BLOG

RED DEER, Alta. Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team booked its ticket to the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup gold medal game with a 4-1 semifinal win over Finland on Friday night.

Ethan Gauthier (Drummondville, Que. / Sherbrooke, QMJHL) scored his tournament-leading fifth goal.
Calum Ritchie (Oakville, Ont. / Oshawa, OHL) scored his third goal and recorded his tournament-leading ninth point.
Matthew Wood (Nanaimo, B.C. / Victoria, BCHL) and Denver Barkey (Newmarket, Ont. / London, OHL) rounded out the scoring for Canada.
Caden Price (Saskatoon, Sask / Kelowna, WHL), Carson Rehkopf (Utopia, Ont. / Kitchener, OHL), Saige Weinstein (Edmonton, Alta. / Spokane, WHL) and Andrew Cristall (Burnaby, B.C. / Kelowna, WHL) contributed with assists.
Scott Ratzlaff (Irma, Alta./ Seattle, WHL) made 23 saves for his third victory of the tournament.
• 13 of 20 skaters recorded at least one point for Canada.
• Canada finished 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
• Canada outshot Finland 27-24.

Other Scores

• 7th Place - Switzerland 4, Germany 1 (Game Stats)
• 5th Place – United States 4, Slovakia 2 (Game Stats)
• Semifinal #2 - Sweden 6, Czechia 2 (Game Stats)

Next Games – Saturday, August 6

• Bronze Medal – Finland vs. Czechia (12 p.m. MT)
• Gold Medal - Canada vs. Sweden (4 p.m. MT)

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast both the bronze and gold medal games from the Peavey Mart Centrium; please check local listings for details.

Full tournament information, including scores, stats, stories and more, is available at HlinkaGretzkyCup.ca .

Quotes

“We came out a bit nervous tonight, but as the game went on, we got our legs under us and got going. I thought we got a lot cleaner in the second period and then in the third period we we’re back to our game. We got stronger as the game went on, but we have to clean up a few things for tomorrow.”
- Assistant coach Al Letang (Renfrew, Ont./Sarnia, OHL) on the win

“We showed tonight that we can battle through any adversity. It wasn’t easy, Finland gave us a real challenge and I thought we got better as the game went on. We need a better start tomorrow, but I know these guys will be ready to go.”
- Wood on the effort

“I felt really comfortable tonight. The team played extremely hard in front of me. Our guys keep everything to the outside and it makes my life easy. We knew this was going to be a tough game, but our guys competed, and I think we raised the bar and know what we need to do tomorrow.”
- Ratzlaff on the defensive effort

For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow through social media on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.