Canada West win bronze at World Junior A Challenge

Team Canada West picked the perfect time to have their best performance of the World Junior A Challenge, defeating Canada East 5-2 in the four-team tournament’s bronze medal game.

The team, which featured Steinbach Piston’ Reece Gault and Jackson Kostiuk and Niverville Nighthawk Avery Laliberte, hadn’t won a match heading into the game, including a 6-1 defeat to their eastern counterparts in pool play.

All three players from the Eastman teams found the scoresheet at the tournament, with Kostiuk and Laliberte picking up assists in the bronze medal game. Kostiuk was named a “player of the game” in a preliminary round match.

“The guys grinded even though they could have quit, but they didn’t and that speaks to their character,” Canada West head coach Mike Reagan (Flin Flon) said in a Hockey Canada news release.

“A lot of people will look at the round-robin and wonder what happened, but at the end of the day I thought our guys played a heck of a game in the semifinal. The score (a 6-0 loss to Sweden) wasn’t indicative of the game, and today we showed up with our best effort. It just goes to show that if you stick with something, you can be rewarded. I’m extremely proud the guys and our staff.”

Included in that staff was Niverville’s Justin Giesbrecht, who joined the team as a trainer.

“I think we just had no more gas left in the tank,” Canada East head coach Bruce Richardson said, referring to a hard-fought 3-2 defeat to the United States in the semi-final.

“We gave it all yesterday; our mindset was all about fighting for a gold medal. We came up short in that goal and we had nothing left for today. The guys tried today, but their emotions were still down a bit from yesterday. I’m still proud of how they competed today and all week.”

The final saw the United States defeat Sweden 7-4, but even as two foreign countries battled for the gold medal in Camrose, Abta., an Eastman skater was on the ice to participate in the game. Ile des Chenes’ Nick Grenier was one of the linespeople for the gold medal match.

For more MJHL coverage including game recaps, standings and statistics, be sure to pick up a print edition of The Carillon every week.