Canada opens scoring but Argentina wins and advances in Montevideo
The first five minutes went by in a flash. Canada’s Jude Nicholson got Canada on the board by finishing off a nice passing play from Robin Thind. The youngsters combined to inject Canada with a thrilling start to the match. Before blinking, Argentina had stormed back and tied the game. From there, it was all Argentina as they added three more first quarter goals and a whole flurry in the third.
Nicholson’s goal, along with other strong stretches in the second and fourth quarters, showed that Canada has the juice to play with a top-8 nation like Argentina, but the slumps in the game show the gap between the two nations. Canada’s men’s side hasn’t defeated Argentina in a match since 2009 at the BDO Hockey Champion Challenge and the 2009 Pan American Cup (Canada’s last gold at this event). Despite feeling right in it for sections of the game, it’s always a challenge coming up against a world hockey superpower, a former number one and 2016 Olympic Champion.
The Pan American performance so far by Canada’s attacking rookies in Thind and Nicholson shows a huge spark and a successful grade on the talent system in Canada. Both players have come through the NextGen system and have significant experience at the Junior level before making the transition this year. In fact, both have eligibility for the Junior World Cup in December. There is a group of young men that have played in multiple Junior World Cups and Junior continentals that will be graduating into senior hockey in the next five years. This cohort of men’s national team players along with the experience of the veteran senior players is building their resume and thickening their skin game by game. This top level experience gets them that much closer to future World Cup performances and the LA2028 Games.
Canada will now advance to the bronze medal game with a chance to play for a podium finish. Standing in their way will be either USA or a rematch with Chile. The team will look to review the tape from the first three games, identify the strong areas and areas to improve and deliver their strongest performance of the event. Brendan Guraliuk, who will play his 50th cap on Sunday morning in the bronze medal match, said that Canada has stretches of really good play and need to add that level of consistency to show good results against top-8 world ranked teams. Sunday’s bronze medal tilt will be a test for this young Canadian side and will be an opportunity to put out their best performance of the tournament as a group. With a young squad, the improvement can be swift, even within a tournament setting.
