USA improved to 3-0 in the tournament and Canada West is at 1-3. It is a must that Sweden wins tomorrow if they want to play again.
James Reeder from the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL opened up the scoring for Team USA at 14:18 of the first period with the assists to Mac Swanson of the Fargo Force and Trevor Connelly from the Tri City Storm.
Muskegon Lumberjack Joe Connor makes it 2-0 a little over a minute later at 15:54 of the opening period. The assist on that goal went to Fergus Falls, Minnesota native Gavin Lindberg.
The US outshot Canada West 13-6 in the first period
USA scores a nice one when Everett, Washington native Kaden Shahan made it 3-0 with the assists to Joe Connor and Youngstown Phantom Tory Pitner at 4:56 of the second period.
Alaska native Max Swanson makes it 4-0 US 31 seconds later at 5:27 of the second period with assists to James Reeder and Madison Capital Will Felicio.
Layne Loomer finally puts Canada West on the board while on the Power Play at 10:09 of the second period with the assists to a couple of Brooks Bandits Logan Sawyer and Dylan Compton.
Shots on goal in the second period were 8-6 for Team USA
Ty Mason got a 5 minute stupid penalty 4:27 into the third period. This is another guy from Brooks taking a stupid penalty. It is not really the players faults though. In the real world the refs here don’t favor and protect them like the refs do in the AJHL. If you are going to take a major penalty and destroy what little chance you already had at winning the game at least make it funny.
Canada West almost killed off the whole penalty until 30 seconds left to make it 5 -1
Los Angeles Kings draft pick Hampton Slukynsky stopped 22 of the 23 shots that he faced for the win for Team USA. Erik Roest stopped 22 of the 27 shots that he faced for Canada West.
Loomer and Swanson are my player of the game guesses. For Team Canada West it was Layne Loomer and for the USA it was Swanson. Those were very obvious choices though.
Canada’s next game if there is one will really depend on the Sweden vs Slovakia game tomorrow morning. They need Slovakia to lose.
