Brayden Yager had a four point game as Canada secured a spot in the semifinals with a 9-1 win over Slovakia at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup
RED DEER, Alta. – Brayden Yager had a four-point game (2G, 2A) as Canada
won its second preliminary game at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup with a 9-1
victory over Slovakia to book a spot in the semifinals, despite still
having one game remaining in the preliminary round.
Yager got his first five minutes into the first on a power play goal, one
of Canada’s two on the man advantage Tuesday night. Zach Benson wired home
a one-timer from Caden Price off the draw to take a 2-0 lead into the
second. Canada peppered Slovakian goaltender Samuel Urban with 29 shots
through 20 minutes of play.
Urban fended off a trigger-happy Canadian side, finishing with 45 saves on
53 shots before being replaced halfway through the third by back up Damien
Slavik who finished the night with 10 saves on 11 shots.
Yeger’s second goal just short of the mid way mark of the game was all it
took to open the floodgates as Tanner Howe, Riley Heidt and Cameron Allen
all tallied in the second.
Heidt got his second of the game in the third, snapping home a feed from
Denver Barkey below the net before Ethan Gauthier and Tanner Molendyk added
goals of their own. Slovak forward Peter Cisar spoiled Canadian goaltender
Carson Bjarnason’s shutout bid, scoring his team’s lone goal at the 26
second mark.
On another heavy-handed tournament win and the success of his line, Yager
says, “As a group I thought we played really well, obviously want to stay
out of the box a little more. Playing with [Benson] and [Gauthier] it’s
really easy. They’re both really smart hockey players and we’re able to
find each other out there and I thought we did a really good job out there
tonight.”
Canada will face Sweden tomorrow to close out preliminaries (7 p.m. MT) and has guaranteed themselves a spot in one of the two semifinals on Saturday evening (5:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. MT) pending the results of tomorrow’s
games.
