Connor Bedard, Team Canada celebrate world junior gold & More Trending News

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Connor Bedard will return from the world junior hockey championship with some gold data.

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The 17-year-old Regina Pats captain established a number of statistical benchmarks earlier than Canada registered a 3-2 additional time victory over Czechia in Thursday night time’s gold-medal recreation in Halifax.

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“It’s a thrill of a lifetime for myself and for all my teammates, my brothers,” Bedard, who was named the match’s Most worthy participant, advised TSN after the sport.

Dylan Guenther settled issues 6:22 into three-on-three sudden-death play as Bedard turned solely the second Pat to play for a number of world junior champions.

Bedard matched the feat of Jeff Friesen, who helped Canada win the championship in 1994 and 1995.

Although Bedard was held off the scoresheet on Thursday, he nonetheless led the match in objectives (9), assists (14) and factors (23).

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The 23 factors are probably the most by a Canadian in a single world juniors.

As effectively, Bedard completed the 2023 with probably the most all-time objectives (17) and factors (36). The earlier data had been held by ex-Pat Jordan Eberle (14 objectives) and Hockey Hall of Famer Eric Lindros (31 factors). Eberle (in 2010) and Bedard are the one Pats to earn MVP honours on the world juniors.

Bedard’s three-goal, four-assist outing in final week’s 11-2 preliminary-round victory over Germany tied a Canadian mark for many factors in a world junior recreation. He is one among 5 Canadians to have scored seven factors in a recreation on the match.

“We’re not talking about myself right now,” Bedard advised TSN. “We just won the biggest tournament in the world.”

Bedard, Friesen and Eberle are amongst 13 Pats gamers who’ve gained a world junior gold medal. The others are Garth Butcher (1982), John Miner (1985), Selmar Odelein (1985), Kevin Haller (1990), Mike Sillinger (1991), Jeff Shantz (1993), Jason Smith (1993), Logan Pyett (2008), Colten Teubert (2009) and Sam Steel (2018).

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As effectively, Bob Strumm — the Pats’ normal supervisor from 1979 to 1985 — was Canada’s GM in 1982 for the primary of his nation’s 20 world junior championship wins.

Pats bench boss Curtis Hunt was an assistant coach when Canada gained gold medals in 2007 and 2008.

It appeared on Thursday that the Pats would cruise to victory after carrying a 2-0 lead effectively into the third interval, due to objectives by Guenther (at 12:41 of the primary interval) and Shane Wright (4:35, second interval).

But the whole lot modified inside a minute within the third interval, when the Czechs acquired back-to-back objectives by Jiri Kulich (at 12:30) and Jakub Kos (13:24).

Canada outshot Czechia 38-26, together with 4-1 in additional time.

The Czechian staff was captained by Bedard’s teammate within the WHL, defenceman Stanislav Svozil. The Moose Jaw Warriors’ Martin Rysavy additionally helped Czechia win the silver medal.

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Two of Canada’s three medal-round victories had been in OT. On Monday, Bedard scored in sudden-death play as Canada defeated Slovakia 4-3 in a quarter-final on Monday. Two nights later, Canada rallied from a 2-0 deficit and downed the United States 6-2 in a semi-final.

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