I\u2019ll be an all-North American championship game at the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup after the United States and Canada won their semifinal games against Slovakia and Finland, respectively.<\/p>\n
The Americans have advanced to the final in consecutive years for the first time in team history. Canada, meanwhile, has won gold 25 times and has made it to the final a previous 28 times dating back to 1991. Slovakia has won bronze twice in the past, while the Finns have managed to do so three times, with the most recent outing happening in Red Deer in 2022. The Finns have lost their last two bronze medal games, including to Canada last year. Slovakia\u2019s last tournament medal came in 2021 \u2013 their only Hlinka medal of the 2021 Century.<\/p>\n
The Slovaks got on the board early, with Patrik Rychlik getting his first of two on the afternoon at 3:50. The Slovaks looked good for a little bit until Gavin Burcar scored on the man advantage at 18:17 to make it a 1-1 game. The Americans never looked back from there. Nash Roed would score twice in succession early in the second before Rychlik tallied another goal, this time on the power play. Boasting a 3-2 lead heading into the third, Ethan Sung would score to put the game out of reach before Roed completed the hat-trick at 19:47, making it a 5-2 game.<\/p>\n
In the evening affair, the Finns got off to a 1-0 lead thanks to a power-play goal from Olli Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4. That came on Finland\u2019s eighth shot of the game, with the Finns outshooting Canada 8-1 through 5:46 of play. But the Canadians wouldn\u2019t finish the period empty-handed, with Landon DuPont blasting a shot past Samuel Heikkinen to make it 1-1. The two teams would trade goals again in the second, with Max Poikela tallying one first before Benjamin Veitch answered back at 27:06. Canada had a pair of goals reviewed in the second half, but Malik L\u2019Italien and Jaako Wysick would end up tallying goals to make it 4-2. The Finns needed something late to get back into it, and Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4 would tally his second of the game with under 10 minutes to go. It wasn\u2019t enough in the end, though, as Veitch would tally another goal and Kayden Stroeder would get one with under a second left to win the game 6-3.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the top standouts from Friday night in Edmonton:<\/p>\n
Slovakia<\/p>\n
#7 Jakub Vasko, D (2029): At 15, Vasko is very young, but you couldn\u2019t tell given how good he\u2019s been. He blocked a boatload of shots while also forcing opponents to the outside with his 6-foot-4 frame. Vasko isn\u2019t the most offensively inclined defender from what I\u2019ve seen, but he\u2019s defensively responsible and wants to do whatever it takes to get in the way of scoring chances. Today was a good showing for a defender who had to be busy.<\/p>\n
#29 Patrik Rychlik, C: Rychlik played his best game of the tournament, scoring the opening goal before adding a second while shorthanded. The mid-sized forward plays with a ton of energy and loves to get into opponent\u2019s scoring lanes to break plays up. It feels like Rychlik is always looking for gaps to bring the puck and get chances on net, and he has the footwork capable of making the most out of it.<\/p>\n
USA<\/p>\n
#10 Gavin Burcar, C: Burcar had a four-point effort today, helping the Americans to advance. There was a bit of everything today, from big faceoff wins, solid physical play and great heads-up passing. Burcar put up just 17 points with Spokane last year but he\u2019s playing some excellent hockey to kick off the year. I thought he was noticeable at the USA Hockey 17 Festval last month, even though he had just one point to show for. This tournament has been excellent for his draft stock because he has proven he can do a little bit of everything. I\u2019m excited to follow him closely this year.<\/p>\n
#12 Colin Grubb, C: Grubb had his best game of the tournament today. He was especially good alongside Sung, with Grubb doing most of the work to retrieve pucks and get them into dangerous scoring lanes. Grubb is a hard-working, two-way forward who is better in the O zone than in his own end, but he makes up for it with the way he never stops moving. I liked his assist on the 4-2 goal, in particular.<\/p>\n
#13 Michael Tang, RW: Tang had been a been quiet on USA\u2019s fourth line heading into today, but he was electric in this one. He nearly scored on a great bat-in attempt early in the first and eventually did score one, only to have it taken away due to goalie interference. The Niagara IceDogs forward is very smart, often getting himself into open lanes when others seemed to struggle. He\u2019s a good puck-handler, but his game away from the puck still needs work. This was his most noticeable game to date, though, and hopefully the start of something bigger in the final.<\/p>\n
#17 Nash Roed, LW (2028): Roed had a three-goal game today, becoming the second American behind Burcar to snag a hat-trick this week. Roed hadn\u2019t scored before today, but he had some good looks, so it was nice to see him finally rewarded. He\u2019s quick, toolsy and plays with a ton of muscle for a guy who isn\u2019t particularly big. Even as one of the younger players on this team, his game feels mature; he might not be overly flashy, but he\u2019s smart and does a lot of things well.<\/p>\n
Canada 6, Finland 3<\/p>\n
Canada<\/p>\n
#6 Malik L\u2019Italien, D: L\u2019Italien had a surprisingly quiet tournament leading into today, but made up for it with a goal, and an assist and a couple of impressive hits. The 6-foot-3 defender is a terrifying human being; nobody wants to go up 1-on-1 against him. He hits hard, and he hits clean. Today, he and DuPont did an excellent job of finding each other all over the ice, with L\u2019Italien playing a bit more free than we\u2019ve seen out of him this week.<\/p>\n
#9 Landon DuPont, D: This felt like DuPont\u2019s best game defensively. He scored the first Canadian goal on an excellent release, making it 1-1. From there, he displayed great gap control to kill plays before it could get back into the D zone. There\u2019s been a lot of interesting discourse surrounding DuPont\u2019s game this week, to say the least. But what really stands out is his defensive reliability and willingness to get a bit more aggressive to make things happen. Today, he showed a little bit of everything.<\/p>\n
#12 Brock Cripps, D: Cripps has had such a strong tournament. The undersized defender plays with a ton of speed and finesse, and I think he\u2019s actually much better defensively than a lot of other smaller defensemen tend to be at this point in the development. I\u2019m not saying Cripps is going to blow you away in his own zone, but he\u2019s good at puck retrievals and forcing opponents to the perimeter right away so he doesn\u2019t have to panic near the net. I liked him on the penalty kill in particular today.<\/p>\n
#18 Benjamin Veitch, LW (2028): Veitch was huge in the team\u2019s comeback effort. He scored the game-tying 2-2 goal in the second before nabbing a pair of assists in the third and an empty-netter for good measure. The Newfoundland native has represented his proud hockey province exceptionally well; he had a pair of goals before tonight, too. He\u2019s a great energy forward who hits hard and attacks harder, and he\u2019s definitely going to receive some serious love at the 2028 draft. <\/p>\n
#21 Jaakko Wysick, LW: Wysick was everywhere today with four points. He did the hard work that resulted in the first two Canadian goals, fighting off the Finnish challengers to get the puck into scoring lanes. He\u2019s not a big guy, but he\u2019s so mature for his age, using his body to win battles and get the puck down the ice. Wysick also has a powerful shot, and while he hasn\u2019t been able to use it a lot of this tournament, it feels like his playmaking has really been a bright spot in Edmonton. I think he\u2019s going to be an interesting mid-round prospect who can play a variety of different roles.<\/p>\n
Finland<\/p>\n
#6 Lenni Kokkonen, D: Kokkonen had assists on each of Finland\u2019s first two goals, and, by all accounts, has been Finland\u2019s best player at the tournament. He plays with so much poise and is fully willing to do whatever it takes to get the puck on net. The strong, two-way defender breaks up a lot of plays, but he also does a ton of damage in tight, as well.<\/p>\n
#12 Miska Liljeberg, C: The Ilves product hasn\u2019t had much to show for offensively at this tournament but he does a lot well in his own zone. He wins a ton of faceoffs, and he\u2019s easily one of Finland\u2019s fastest skaters. Liljeberg has a good shot, but didn\u2019t really get to unload it often today; instead, I thought he was better at finding his teammates from the perimeter.<\/p>\n
#15 Olli Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4, C: Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4\u2019s defensive play on the fourth Canadian goal let a lot to be desired. But he still scored twice, including the goal that gave Finland some much-needed life late today. Kylm\u00e4l\u00e4 had a productive year internationally last year and has done a solid job of chasing down rebounds and looking for passes in tight around the net. There\u2019s some obvious skill there; he just needs to round out his two-way game if he\u2019s going to continue at center.<\/p>\n
#24 Luca Santala, RW: Santala is the most skilled player on this Finnish team, and today, his skating was definitely on display. He was also physically dominant when he needed to be, especially in the second period with how he continued to keep the puck in the attacking zone. Santala also had an assist, setting up Kylmala\u2019s second of the night to make it 4-3. Santala is one of the most well-rounded European talents for the draft, finding more and more ways to keep himself involved throughout a game,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll be an all-North American championship game at the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup after the United States and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-850179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850179","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=850179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}