It was a golden finish for Team Canada’s U18 squad at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup over the weekend, which took the championship game with a 6-2 win over Team Sweden in Edmonton.
The national team included some local flavour, with Kootenay Ice forward Peyton Krebs on the roster, playing along side Cranbrook product Bowen Byram, who mans the blue line for the Vancouver Giants.
Krebs finished the tournament with two goals and three assists in five games, while Byram notched one goal and three assists in five games as well.
While Team Canada dropped a tense 4-3 game to the Czech Republic in the preliminary round, the national squad marched all the way to the final by rattling off four wins in a row.
That run included a heart-stopping semi-final victory over the United States, as Dylan Cozens scored a buzzer beater goal in the third period to tie it up and send it into overtime, where Josh Williams ended the affair to put Canada into the gold-medal game.
Canada opened the tournament with a 10-0 rout of the Swiss, before dispatching Slovakia 4-2 and Sweden 4-3 en route to the semifinals.
Below: Peyton Krebs makes a move on goal while Bowen takes the puck up the ice during Team Canada action over the weekend. Photos by Andy Devlin/Hockey Canada Images
