Heading into the ultimate day of preliminary play of the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup (Aug. 7), america and Germany confronted off in a must-win recreation for each groups. The winner of this matchup earned a spot within the semi-finals, whereas the opposite discovered themselves in third place in Group B. After a dominant 12-3 victory by the People, they’re now in that semi-final spot. Within the massive recreation of the day, Sweden and Canada confronted off in a must-see match to find out the primary seed in Group A, and the Canadians earned the highest spot with a 2-1 victory.

Crew USA’s Offense Lastly Will get Rolling

After their first two preliminary video games, america’ high-powered offense solely tallied 4 targets and was trying to get on monitor in a “win, and you’re in” recreation towards Germany. The People got here out on hearth and saved the German protection on their heels with fixed strain within the offensive zone within the first interval. They usually seemed unstoppable within the opening body till it got here to cashing in, with solely two targets within the interval.

The floodgates lastly opened within the second. The nonstop strain and powerful puck motion lastly paid off for the People with a six-goal interval, spearheaded by outshooting Germany 21-1. Their velocity and consistency appeared to put on down the German protection and sucked the life out of them because the body progressed. In such a blowout contest, Crew USA outshot Germany 54-15, america’ protection was not examined a lot, however that may be a testomony to their efficiency in each the offensive and impartial zones.

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Even once they misplaced possession within the offensive zone, heads-up performs from their defensemen helped result in fast regroups and transitions again into the zone. Being led by gamers like workforce captain Blake Fiddler (4 factors) and Alexander Murphy (5 factors) after each had been held off the scoresheet within the first two video games, the People had been virtually good offensively. In whole, they’d 9 completely different purpose scorers within the victory and 11 gamers who tallied multi-point video games to associate with an ideal penalty kill within the match.

Canada Shuts Down Excessive-Powered Sweden Offense

In essentially the most extremely anticipated recreation of the preliminary spherical, followers weren’t let down by the sport between Canada and Sweden. The Canadian workforce confirmed their skill to decelerate Sweden’s high-powered offense, which has been led by Viktor Klingsell, Ivar Stenberg, and Milton Gastrin. The scoresheet might present the shot totals had been fairly even (30-24 Canada), however Crew Canada had extra high quality pictures, thanks, largely, to nice goaltending from Jack Ivankovic when he was challenged and strong defensive play. Together with slowing down Sweden’s deadly trio, Canada additionally saved one of many 2025 Draft’s prime prospects, Jakob Ihs Wozniak, off the scoresheet.

With a powerful recreation from their protection, the Canadian offense used strong puck motion and workforce velocity to fight the Swedish defensive play, which appeared to be geared toward a extra bodily type to try to throw Canada off their recreation. Canada had their stars step up within the win, and Erie Otters defenseman Matthew Schaefer was some of the strong and easy gamers on the ice. He confirmed his willingness to get entangled within the play on Canada’s first purpose when he joined the push and made a very robust play in tight to seek out Benjamin Kindel. After incomes OHL First Crew All-Rookie for the 2023-24 season, Schaefer has continued his robust play and has been top-of-the-line defensemen within the match to this point.

Gavin McKenna was additionally some of the notable gamers on the ice alongside Schaefer within the 2-1 victory. Connor Bedard’s cousin has proven extra of the playmaking facet of his recreation than his scoring contact however did rating the game-winning purpose within the third interval. McKenna’s imaginative and prescient and excessive hockey IQ are a few of the strongest facets of his recreation and have helped make him the projected prime decide for the 2026 Draft.

For Sweden, goaltender Isak Sorqvist was as soon as once more strong and helped his workforce keep within the recreation whereas the offense was unable to get going as hoped. Klingsell, who leads the match in factors, was held pointless however remains to be inside attain of that uncommon 13-point mark in a single Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He would be a part of Jarome Iginla and Matvei Michkov in doing so.

Semi-Finals Are Set

With the preliminary spherical lastly wrapping up, the semi-finals are set to start on Aug. 10. Canada will face the People in what is anticipated to be a high-intensity, thrilling recreation. Sweden will face the high-flying Czechia workforce that’s trying to return to the championship recreation for the second yr in a row.