Trenton Golden Hawk Taeo Artichuck celebrates his goal with Team Canada East teammates at the World Junior A Challenge in Truro, NS Wednesday night. The East team is 3-0-0 following a 5-0 win over Sweden. (Hockey Canada photo)
Dylan Edwards of the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Toronto Patriots had his second two-goal game in a row to lead Team Canada East to a 5-0 win over Sweden at the 2023 World Junior A Challenge in Truro, NS Wednesday night.
Canada East improved to 3-0-0 at the event.
Taeo Artichuk (Ajax, ON/Trenton, OJHL) and Ben Pickell (Courtice, ON/Pickering, OJHL) each recorded a goal and an assist.
Dawson Labre (Les Cèdres, QC/Smiths Falls, CCHL) had a 37-save shutout.
“We scored on our opportunities,” said Canada East head coach Billy McGuiga. “That was the difference tonight. We had some things to clean up coming into this one, but our goalie was calm, cool and collected in the net and that is all you can ask for. Our compete level has to be real high to win a tournament like this and I like where we are at in that regard, we’re playing hard and we’re coming together as a team.”
Edwards also had praise for Labre in the Canada East goal.
“We trust him with our life right now,” Edwards said. “He is playing unbelievable and he is winning us games. We know that he’s back there so it allows us to jump into the rush and maybe take some risks that we shouldn’t, but we know that he’s there and he’s standing tall. It’s so much fun to play in front of him right now.”
Next game – Friday, Dec. 15:
Canada East vs. USA – 6:30 p.m. ET
Semifinals – Saturday
Medal games – Sunday
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada will broadcast the bronze and gold medal games from the Rath Eastlink Community Centre in Truro; please check local listings for details.
All preliminary-round games are livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca.
For more information on the 2023 World Junior A Hockey Challenge, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow through social media on Facebook and X.
