Canada Para hockey squad improves defensively but loses to U.S.
Published
ELMIRA, ONTARIO — Canada's National Para hockey team dropped a tough 2-1 decision to the United States on Saturday, winding up a three-game series at the Woolwich Memorial Centre.
Despite the loss and being outshot 23-4, Canada had a number of highlights, including Dominic Larocque's 21-save performance in net and James Dunn's power-play goal. Canada also went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
“I thought we got back to the identity that we are trying to develop, which is making it difficult for the opposition to get good scoring opportunities," said head coach Russ Herrington.
"We played like our first game of this series in terms of our defensive structure and our overall competitiveness. We kept fighting right to the end and we are happy about the way we played. We know we can still improve before this year’s world championship, but we need to put in the work to be ready to play the Americans again.”
Canada lost Game 1 of the series 1-0 in overtime on Wednesday, and lost Game 2 on Friday 9-3.
Dixon, who had an assist in the loss, added: “We stuck to our game plan today. We were a lot more resilient, we kept pucks to the outside and away from our net. We played a really good game, but unfortunately we needed a bit of puck luck at the end.
"We can take a lot of positives from today’s game and the entire week in Elmira, but we need to have a little more consistency and that is something we will focus on moving forward.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2023.