Author of the article:<\/p>\n
Dan Barnes<\/a> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Postmedia”<\/p>\n Published Mar 07, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 6 minute read<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n If Canada\u2019s Paralympic Games hockey team needed an external focus or extra motivation, and that seems doubtful, it nonetheless came to them as they gathered in Milan en masse to watch the Olympic men\u2019s gold-medal tilt with the U.S.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Many of the 17 para hockey players have felt what Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and 22 other Team Canada athletes did that day; immediate shock, then the emptiness that inevitably accompanies such a heartbreaking loss to a heated rival on one of the sport\u2019s biggest stages. That the same thing happened to the Canadian women\u2019s team at Milano Cortina days earlier meant the psychic wound was even deeper.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n You see, the U.S. has essentially owned Canada at the Winter Paralympic Games too, though the sample size is small. The two nations have played for a Paralympic gold medal just twice, in 2018 and 2022, and the U.S. won both games, 5-0 in 2022 and 2-1 in overtime in 2018. The U.S. also posted a 3-0 win over Canada in the semifinals in 2014, as well as a 5-1 preliminary round win in 2002. Canada\u2019s only measure of accomplishment against the U.S. came in a 1-1 preliminary round tie in 1998, well before any of the current players were on the squad.<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Conversely, there are 10 holdovers from the 2022 Paralympic Games team, and they didn\u2019t need a reminder of what the silver medals felt like, dangling from their necks while the strains of the Star Spangled Banner filled the stadium in Beijing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been on that side of the coin when you lose in overtime in a gold-medal game, and it\u2019s devastating, it\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d said Greg Westlake, a wily veteran playing in his sixth Paralympics. \u2026 \u201cWe had a great three-team camp in August with a lot of the men\u2019s team and the women\u2019s team, so we got to know a lot of the players on both those teams. When you see people who are so supportive of your program not reach their goal, you just feel disappointment for them. But ultimately, our team is our team, and we\u2019re on our own journey here. I think every guy on the team is going to get a lot of messages like, \u2018hey, we need you guys now,\u2019 so we\u2019re just trying not to add any extra pressure, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n While many observers would size up the two competition pools for Milano Cortina 2026 and pencil in another Canada\/U.S. gold medal final for Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Not Westlake, who took off his assistant coaching hat to rejoin the player pool for one last run at the podium\u2019s top step. He is too experienced and too savvy to jump to any conclusions.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played a long time, and before Vancouver 2010 I could have said, \u2018hey, it\u2019s going to be us and the U.S. in the final. We lost in the semis, we didn\u2019t even medal. Sochi 2014, there was an upset on the other side, and we ended up having to play the U.S. in the semifinal, and we didn\u2019t get to the final. I\u2019ve been around long enough to know that so many wonky things can happen in a short-term, one-game (elimination) tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Play begins on Saturday<\/p>\n Team Canada opened its Paralympic Games tournament against Slovakia on Saturday and will meet Japan and Czechia before the elimination phase officially begins. But head coach Boris Rybalka said the team adopted a clear mindset for every game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to just focus on ourselves and what I mean by that is we know every game we play as we\u2019re going into it is a game seven and it doesn\u2019t matter who it is because we don\u2019t want to look ahead to another opponent. As you know, when you cover sports, when you look ahead, that\u2019s sometimes when trouble comes. So game seven to us is against Slovakia, and game seven then is against Japan and then game seven is against the Czechs and then game seven will be the playoff round. So that\u2019s our focus right now as a team and they\u2019ve done great and we\u2019re going into the Paralympic Games with that focus.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Preparing this team is unlike anything Rybalka has done through a long, successful career in junior hockey in Alberta. The 17 players first came together on Aug. 24 at the national teams camp in Calgary, and spent about two weeks every month together, and the other two weeks at their respective homes across Canada. With the Games on the near horizon, they got together Feb. 5 and won\u2019t disperse until after the Games end on March 16. It\u2019s also different because the competition schedule is particularly light between tournaments. Prior to a couple of pre-Paralympics exhibition games in Milan at the end of February, the team last played in early December in Dawson Creek, B.C. during the Para Cup. There were six games in October before that.<\/p>\n Advertisement 7<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cSo the only other way for us to get better is to play against each other in practice,\u201d said Adam Dixon. \u201cSo in terms of getting intense, it definitely does. It\u2019s kind of your job to play as hard as you can to make the guy beside you better. And that results in some temper sometimes. It\u2019s kind of funny. We\u2019re all doing it for the betterment of each other, but in the moment you forget that. Some guys flip out, which is always enjoyable. We\u2019ve had a couple of practice fights this year. Nothing too crazy, just getting some steam out. Just being in a hotel for two weeks alone would do that. But putting yourselves on the road for two weeks and then asking yourselves to compete as hard as possible for a couple of hours a day, that\u2019s going to bring stuff out.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement 8<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The benefit of that much practice time, at least from a coaching perspective, is an ability to focus on systems.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we as a staff learned is we\u2019re starting to become a well-tuned machine and what I mean by that is from defensive zone to neutral zone, the forecheck, the power play, the penalty kill, that is something that put a smile on our faces as a coaching staff,\u201d Rybalka said at the end of February.<\/p>\n Loads of heart, drive and speed<\/p>\n All that aside, he thinks the team\u2019s biggest weapons are heart, drive and speed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a never quit attitude and that\u2019s something that we worked on all year. We\u2019re on the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n The team will be led by veterans like Westlake, captain Tyler McGregor, Dixon, Dom Cozzolino, James Dunn and Liam Hickey. They will help rookies Shawn Burnett, Vincent Boily, Auren Halbert, Mathieu Lelievre and Micah Kovacevich make their way through a pressure-packed Games debut.<\/p>\n Advertisement 9<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n \u201cThey have talked to these young guys and said \u2018yes it\u2019s gonna be exciting, there\u2019s gonna be nervousness, but make sure you enjoy the time because it goes by quick and remember why we\u2019re here,\u201d said Rybalka. \u201cWe\u2019re here to win a gold for Canada and that\u2019s our number one goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Chances are, the U.S. will stand in their way at some point. In the semis? In the final? Who knows?<\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what, we\u2019re going to have to go through each other to get to a gold medal,\u201d said Dixon. \u201cOur ultimate goal is being Paralympic gold medalists, so we\u2019re going to have to attempt to break their hearts and destroy their goal. \u2026 We\u2019ve definitely been on the other side of it. Whenever we\u2019ve come up successful, it\u2019s been a world championship event. We\u2019ve not been able to have the right game at the right time at the Paralympics, but I think Boris has done a really good job of getting us to that point.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are coming in with a ton of confidence and belief that we can get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n dbarnes@postmedia.com<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links Olympics Author of the article: Dan Barnes \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Postmedia” Published Mar 07, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 6…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-521395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Greg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Greg-Westlake-e1772919028324.jpg\")
Greg Westlake, left, of Canada and Brody Roybal of the United States battle for the puck during their para ice hockey finals match at the 2022 Winter Paralympics. Photo by Dita Alangkara \/The Associated PressArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.7.1\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
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