Canada will face Finland for world junior hockey gold

EDMONTON—It has been 13 months since captain Mason McTavish, goalie Dylan Garand and the rest of the best teenage hockey players in Canada first gathered to try to earn a spot in the world junior championship.

Much has happened since: a winter tournament cancelled due to the COVID pandemic; a roster reassembled and remade; the team’s organization, Hockey Canada, reeling over sex-assault allegations.

Now the group sees the finish line, just as they imagined it all those months ago: playing for gold — Saturday night against Finland.

“It’s been a long road and it’s been with a lot of obstacles in it, and they’re very determined to be where they are,” Canadian head coach Dave Cameron said.

“It’s why you play the game,” McTavish said. “Every kid dreams about the gold-medal game.”

And for Garand, who was the backup goalie in January 2021 when Canada lost to the Americans in the final, the journey has been even longer.

“I’ve been waiting for this day to come. It’s been a year and a half,” Garand said. “It’s great to be in this moment now, but the hardest work is ahead.”

McTavish continued to hold the hottest hand in tournament, scoring his eighth goal as Canada finished off Czechia with a 5-2 win Friday. McTavish has at least one point in each of his six games and leads the tournament in goals and points (15).

“It just goes to show his consistency and how good of a hockey player he is,” teammate Logan Stankoven said. “We’re going to be watching him do great things in the NHL here soon.

“He’s our captain for obvious reasons, and he’s just a leader both on and off the ice. For him to come back and play in the tournament in the middle of summer, it speaks volumes of the type of person he is. And, obviously, he’s the best player in this tournament.”

Kent Johnson, Logan Stankoven, Ronan Seeley and the Canadian juniors advanced to Saturday’s gold-medal game at the world junior hockey championship after celebrating a semifinal victory over the Czechs.

McTavish chose to play while others from the winter event chose to prepare for their NHL camps. He has been the right player to wear the C.

“I’m just doing what I’m doing, just leading by example. If I have to say something, I’ll say it,” said McTavish. “This group is really good. They get themselves ready to go. If need be, anybody can call anybody out.”

Canada will try for its 19th tournament gold medal against the Finns, who edged Sweden 1-0 in the late semifinal. The Czechs, who scored twice in the third period, will play for bronze. They last won a medal in 2005, a bronze. They were in the medal round in 2018 but finished fourth.

The Czechs offered Canada its stiffest competition. Kent Johnson and 17-year-old Connor Bedard, who scored another one of his oh-my-goodness goals off a terrific wrist shot, gave Canada a 2-0 lead in the first.

Garand stood tall when the Czechs got the first nine shots of the second period. But a couple of power-play goals — by Stankoven and McTavish — had Canada up 4-0 by the end of two periods.

Czech captain Jan Mysak ended Garand’s shutout bid midway through the third, and David Jiricek scored on the power play with 7:16 go to make things close. But Josh Roy helped Canada regain its footing, going between the pads of backup Pavel Cajan with 5:34 to go.

“Overall we played pretty well,” said Garand. “We controlled the play and ran the clock a little bit when we needed to.”

Garand said his friendship with fellow goalie Devon Levi — who lost that game to the Americans and is preparing for camp in Buffalo — is part of the reason he’s here.

“When we lost that one that year, I promised that I’d come back and win, and now I’ve got an opportunity to fulfil that,” he said.

He recalled the mood around the Canadian team that day as the players prepared for the Americans.

“We played the Russians in the semifinals, and we were amped up,” said Garand. “The next day you could sense some tension, some nervousness with it being the gold-medal game.”

The lesson? “Just keep an even mindset.”

That’s where McTavish’s leadership could come in. He is becoming known as a proven winner. He was on Canada’s under-18s. He was on the Hamilton Bulldogs when they won the J. John Robertson Cup as OHL champions. Those are experiences he can draw on while he prepares to play for gold.

“The more you play, the more you get used to them,” said McTavish. “The biggest thing is, it’s just another game. It’s hockey. It’s supposed to be fun. That’s why you play. You just try not to think about it too much and hopefully it goes our way.”