Day 4 Quarter-Finals Recap: Canada Red Rolls Past Sweden, Schultz's Hat Trick Survives an 8-6 Thriller With Finland

OAKVILLE — Both Canadian teams are moving on. In the afternoon quarterfinal, Canada Red weathered an early Swedish push behind Owen Loftus and pulled away for a 6-1 win, with Kash Kwajah setting the tone and captain Liam Pue getting his first of the tournament. In the evening, Canada White and Finland traded chances in an 8-6 thriller, the best game of the tournament so far, decided by a 5-on-3 kill and Maddox Schultz's hat trick. Friday's semifinals are set: Canada Red vs. Czechia and Canada White vs. the United States. Here's how both quarterfinals unfolded, and who stood out.

Kwajah, Loftus and a monkey off Pue's back push Canada Red past Sweden, 6-1

Canada Red is headed to the semifinals after a 6-1 quarterfinal win over Sweden, but the score doesn't tell the story of how tight this one was early. Six different Canadians scored, Owen Loftus made 30 saves, and captain Liam Pue finally got the goal he'd been chasing all week.

This game could have looked very different in its first minute. Wilson Boumedienne busted down the left wing and threw it in front for Anton Toivola Henriksson, and Ludvig Langermo Neuman pounced on the rebound only for Loftus to make a massive save. If Canada Red's goalie doesn't get to that one, it could have been a different afternoon.

Sweden scored anyway on the very next push. Isak Alvudd finished a 2-on-1 from Leon Roos 1:43 in, a play that left Loftus with no chance. The shots were 4-0 Sweden at that point, and Canada didn't register its first shot until more than four minutes in.

This was a different Swedish team from the one Canada White beat 7-2 on Tuesday. Early on, Sweden did a great job of getting to the middle of the ice and into the dirty areas near the net, while Canada Red played far more on the perimeter than it had all tournament. Sweden nearly connected on backdoor plays twice: Oliver Hammerman just missed a cross-ice feed from Langermo Neuman, and Boumedienne nearly buried a one-timer at the side of the net before Loftus got across. Late in the period, Loftus went into the full splits to deny another Swedish chance. Sweden led 13-12 in shots after one.

Canada Red looked like it was gripping its sticks a little tight. Pue had a dangerous look from the top of the circle and walked in on the left side, only to have a shot blocked. He was working hard to generate chances that just weren't connecting.

Then, as he has all tournament, Kash Kwajah answered. With Langermo Neuman in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct, Lucas Matheson found Kwajah backdoor on an absolutely gorgeous pass, and he buried a one-timer from along the goal line with 1:18 left in the first. Any time this team has had a question this week, Kwajah has been the one to answer it. “Matheson gave me a nice gift backdoor,” Kwajah said. “So I kind of tried not to shoot too hard and miss the net, but hard enough to get it there.”

Kwajah brushed off the idea that he's been the go-to guy. “Everybody's getting their opportunities,” he said. “Just kind of getting some breaks, and as long as we keep working, somebody will get it. So it's just been going my way a little bit.”

Canada Red took over in the second period. With 15:50 left, Mateo Ferreira walked the puck below the goal line and circled out to Zaac Charbonneau, who fed Thomas Boisvert at the bottom of the right circle, and Boisvert banged home a one-timer for the go-ahead goal, which stood up as the game-winner. With Ted Burstrom off for interference, Kwajah slid it across to Pue, whose shot from the right circle was kicked out right onto the stick of Reid Nicol for a power-play goal and a 3-1 lead. Kwajah rang one off the post minutes later, buzzing as usual.

The moment that brought the bench to its feet came with 6:35 left in the period, when Kwajah dove in front of a shot to block it. He was a little ginger getting up, but it was a heart-and-soul play from one of the team's top offensive players. “It doesn't really matter,” Kwajah said. “I bet any of the boys, if they were there, would do the exact same thing. You know, we play for the front, not the back. Just kind of play as a team.”

Pue saw it the same way. “It's so cool to see him, a goal scorer who plays the game so well, sacrifice and block a shot for the team,” Pue said. “It kind of shows how much he cares and wants to win.”

Ferreira made it 4-1 with 3:20 left in the second, throwing a low shot through traffic that found its way through Otto Berggren. Kwajah capped the period with a heads-up play, hitting Nicol with a stretch pass from below his own goal line all the way to the far blue line while Sweden's penalty killers were changing.

Loftus kept slamming the door. He stopped Alvudd's toe-drag attempt late in the second, robbed Roos five-hole early in the third, and was calm and steady all afternoon. This game could have been a lot closer if not for Canada Red's goaltender, who was dialed in from that first-minute save onward. “Owen's been great,” Kwajah said. “Just knowing that he's got our back gives us a little extra boost to work back for him, you know, get a few goals. I think he helped us a lot.”

Landon Roulston made it 5-1 at 7:33 of the third, picking a pass out of mid-air at the Swedish blue line and walking in alone, showing Berggren glove before snapping it low blocker.

Then came the moment Canada Red's room had been waiting for. Pue had spent the game finding other ways to help: finishing checks, throwing two big hits on one shift and creating chances that wouldn't go in. With Sweden's net empty, he fired the puck from inside his own zone and into the net. He looked up to the ceiling and let out a huge sigh of relief, and his teammates mobbed him with hugs. They knew how important it was for their captain to get that monkey off his back. “It definitely was,” Pue said when asked if it was the best-feeling empty-netter of his life. “I was telling the boys I'd need the net empty the whole game to get one, but it definitely felt good.”

“The boys all knew I wanted to get one so bad and knew I was working for it,” he added, “so it was kind of good to see them all come and hug me after I got that one in.”

Pue said a pre-game talk with his coaches changed his focus. “They were talking about process over outcome. You do all the little things in the game, and then the other stuff's going to come,” he said. “So I think that was a big thing for me: trying not to focus on getting the goals, but on finishing a check that shift and whatnot.”

That's a sign of a good player: finding ways to help your team when things aren't going your way offensively. And it hasn't been easy for a player who piled up points against older competition this summer at the Hlinka Gretzky, where most players were 2009-born. “I think for me it's big to just stick to the plan. Try not to go out of my way to have the puck, hold on to it, be selfish,” Pue said. “It's been big for me to stay even keel, not get too frustrated or show my frustration, but stay level-headed and make sure I'm playing the game the right way and not doing anything to hurt my team.”

Canada Red finished 2 for 6 on the power play and held Sweden to 0 for 4, outshooting the Swedes 38-31. Langermo Neuman and Loftus were named players of the game.

The turnaround is quick, with Canada Red facing Czechia in Friday's semifinal. “Obviously it's a big win, but we're back at zeros,” Kwajah said. “Just a big game. Looking forward to it.” His plan for the next 24 hours is simple: “I've just got to get some rest, you know, sleep's big. Boys need to get a good meal sooner than later.” Pue agreed. “Obviously, we want to be on a high because of it, and we won, so that's all great. But I think it's important to shift our focus to what our job is next.”

Standouts
Kash Kwajah (CAN-R): the tying power-play goal, a shot off the post, a diving shot block and a heads-up stretch pass. The heartbeat of this team through 3 games.
Owen Loftus (CAN-R): player of the game with 30 saves on 31, including a massive stop on Langermo Neuman in the first minute.
Liam Pue (CAN-R): his first goal of the tournament into an empty net, plus an assist on Nicol's power-play goal, two big hits and a relentless effort while snakebitten.
Zaac Charbonneau (CAN-R): two assists, a dangerous end-to-end rush in the third and a slick spin pass at the blue line.
Mateo Ferreira (CAN-R): a goal and the patient walk below the goal line that set up Boisvert's go-ahead goal.
Landon Roulston (CAN-R): a breakaway goal off a mid-air pick and an assist.
Ludvig Langermo Neuman (SWE): Sweden's player of the game, a constant threat in the slot all afternoon.
Melker Wersall (SWE): one of Sweden's best players, with a nice feed to the side of the net and a toe-drag chance in the second.
Wilson Boumedienne (SWE): dangerous rushes down the middle; Canada's D had a hard time containing him.

Schultz's hat trick, a 5-on-3 kill and Voortman's save carry Canada White past Finland, 8-6

If you were only going to watch one game from this tournament, this was the one. Canada White beat Finland 8-6 in the most entertaining game of the U17 World Challenge so far: the most back-and-forth, the most high-flying offence, insane high-end chances at both ends, and plenty of defensive breakdowns along the way. Maddox Schultz had a hat trick and an assist, and the night turned on a two-minute 5-on-3 penalty kill.

Schultz looked dangerous from his first shift, coming down the right wing and toe-dragging a defender. Before five minutes were gone he had picked off a pass at the red line and gone in alone, only to be stopped by a low glove save from Sami Sinkko. Jacob McKinnon opened the scoring 7:37 in, set up by Cruz Jim and Madden Daneault. Chace Turchak made it 2-0 just 35 seconds later, from Declan McNally and Ryan Beaulieu.

Finland, though, had an answer every time. Valtti Maenpaa jumped on a Canada White turnover and went in alone to make it 2-1 on just the second Finnish shot of the game; Canada White had 14 at that point. McKinnon was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway, and Schultz then buried a cross-crease feed at 13:38 to restore the two-goal lead, after Adrian Sgro and Kane Cloutier worked the puck down low. Niilo Jokinen answered on the power play, tapping in a pass from Liius Nurmi after Cloutier went off for hooking. Jace Voortman restored the two-goal lead on Canada White's power play after a long cycle, circling into the slot and ripping a shot bar down. Canada White led 4-2 and outshot Finland 21-9 after one.

The second period was chaos. Nurmi unleashed a power-play bomb to make it 4-3. Schultz answered by taking a pass from Daneault, getting behind the defender and walking around Sinkko to go low blocker. Then the wheels came off defensively. Elias Oksanen rang one off the bar after a Canada White turnover, then scored moments later off another one, blowing by the defence and deking the goalie. Every time Canada scored, Finland had an answer, and the Finns were flying by their bench getting the guys amped up.

Midway through the period, shots were 28-14 for Canada White, the score was 5-4, and you couldn't put any of it on the goaltender. And then Jokinen tied the game 5-5 at 10:34 of the period, with a low shot along the ice. The building, which had already gone quiet after Finland's fourth goal, was now on pins and needles. Dylan Mingo came in to replace Lainesse.

Canada White head coach Dylan Smoskowitz said the move was about the skaters, not the goalie. “It wasn't anything against Zach,” he said. “It was more of a mental reset for the group, and we made sure everyone knew it: the team, Zach, Dylan Mingo. This is not on Zach. This is on you guys for not being strong enough in front of him.”

“Real proud of Zach for the work he did,” Smoskowitz added. “Real proud of Dylan for going in cold like that and giving us a good effort.”

By the flow of the game, it felt like Schultz was going to have to do something special, and he was about to. He buzzed around the net, took a pounding in front of the Finnish goal without letting it bother him, and hammered a Finn behind the net. Finland's game plan was clearly to make life hard for him, and with 7:45 left in the second he took a penalty on a borderline call, with Oksanen chirping in his face on the way to the box. It was a huge moment: a Finnish goal there might have flipped the game for good. Instead, Mingo made a blocker save on a Jesper Torkell one-timer and swallowed a point shot, Canada killed it, and the bench erupted.

It was the push Canada White needed. Colin Kennedy took a hit from Oksanen on the half wall, and Voortman wired a cross-crease pass to Cloutier at the far post for a sweet finish. On the very next shift, Schultz fed Cruz Jim from the corner, and the defenceman beat Sinkko with a low shot through traffic for a 7-5 lead after two.

Finland struck just 39 seconds into the third. Aamos Vahvaselka walked over the blue line with a shot that caught Mingo by surprise, making it 7-6 and quieting the building again. Vahvaselka was one of Finland's best players: a two-way defenceman with good speed who is listed at 5-foot-11 but plays much bigger.

Then came the sequence that decided the game. Sgro took a roughing penalty in the defensive zone, and on the same whistle, Turchak was called for a faceoff violation, giving Finland a full two-minute 5-on-3. Coming right after Canada had been handed a two-minute minor, it was a questionable time to call that kind of penalty, and the crowd let the officials hear it with chants of “Ref, you suck.” Finland hit the post on a near-open net, Torkell hit the outside of the post, and then Voortman made the play of the night. With a Finnish shooter staring at a wide-open net, Voortman slid across and got his stick on the puck to take the goal away, then recovered it and cleared the zone.

The kill expired, and Schultz buried a pass from Sgro and Turchak, the two players who had just come out of the box, for his hat trick with 13:30 left. Hats rained down on the ice, and Schultz celebrated hard at the Canadian bench, pumping up the crowd. It was a massive momentum swing, and it effectively ended Finland's hopes. “First of all, what a kill by our group,” Schultz said. “There were a lot of guys who didn't get a lot of ice time tonight, and the way some of them went out, blocked shots and put their bodies on the line was amazing to see. And then I just finished it off. So an unbelievable job by our group. Hats off to everyone.”

Schultz called the 5-on-3 “massive.” “Questionable calls on that one, but stuff happens,” he said. “Our team didn't get down. We had one mission, to kill it off, and once we did, it was absolutely crucial. Seeing Sgro and Turchak come out of that box and go on the forecheck was amazing.”

He was emphatic about Voortman's save. “100%. If they score there, it's a different game,” Schultz said. “He's a huge part of our team, and he's taken on a huge leadership role for us. He's an unbelievable guy. I can't wait to see what he does.”

Smoskowitz couldn't say enough about Voortman either. He wanted to draft him in the OHL, and still sounds frustrated that he couldn't. “I was pissed off. In the OHL, we liked him a lot. He was probably one of the best interviews I've ever had in Barrie. But we didn't draft him; we didn't have a pick high enough for him,” Smoskowitz said. “He's the ultimate competitor, the ultimate teammate. He takes this as seriously as any pro I've ever been around. Jace Voortman's going to play this game for a long time, and Jace Voortman's going to win a lot of gold medals and a lot of Stanley Cups.”

To Smoskowitz, the timing of Schultz's goal off the kill was no accident. “We talk about it all the time: after penalty kills, scoring goals. That's how we draw it up,” he said, slightly tongue-in-cheek. “I've been around the game for quite some time. I think that's just the hockey gods telling you that you probably deserve a better fate, and they kind of repay you for that one. That was pretty cool to watch.”

Special teams and chippiness remained a story of the game. Cloutier tripped a Finn in the neutral zone only a minute after the hat trick, and Voortman was jawing with Jose Tiilikainen after the whistle as things turned even more physical. Finland had been working to get Canada to react all game, and at points it worked. At the final buzzer, Voortman took exception to something Eddie Wallin said, and the officials had to move in quickly.

Schultz thought the team mostly handled it well. “For the most part, I thought we did,” he said. “In some of the games before, we took some dumb penalties. But in this game, I thought we stayed really disciplined. That was one of our main focuses for the game: just to stay disciplined when they're trying to get under our skin. Nothing after the whistle, just keeping our hands down and letting them talk.”

His coach was even more positive. “I was so impressed with the emotional control of the group tonight,” Smoskowitz said. “It's a high-emotion game. It's a quarterfinal. You're playing for Canada, you're playing on home ice, and the guys did a fantastic job of controlling it. I actually thought it could have been a lot worse.” He credited his assistants, Kyle Chipchura and Matty Gravel, for “righting the ship” behind the bench.

Six goals against isn't what any coach wants, but Smoskowitz said the defensive message won't change. “From the start of this whole experience, about nine or 10 days ago, we've probably spent 80% of the time talking about defence: having numbers back, protecting the house, managing pucks. And 20% of the time talking about offence,” he said. “It's funny how much offence we generate from solid defence. So nothing's going to change going into tomorrow's semifinal.”

Canada White outshot Finland 45-33 and went 1 for 5 on the power play, while Finland went 2 for 9. Sinkko made 37 saves, Lainesse stopped 12 of 17, and Mingo stopped 15 of 16 in relief. Jokinen, who was flying all night with tons of pace and great hands, was Finland's player of the game with two goals and an assist. When it mattered, Smoskowitz closed it out with Schultz, Voortman, McKinnon, Sgro and Holden Wouters, a good indication of who the coach trusts most.

Schultz was Canada White's player of the game, and his coach struggled to find the words. “I don't know if there's a task Maddox isn't up to, to be honest with you,” Smoskowitz said. “When you're really around this kid, it's like someone put this guy into a factory and just built the ultimate hockey player and the ultimate competitor.”

Before the game, the team played video messages from each player's family. Schultz's father kept his short. “His dad said, 'We're proud of you, we love you, and be relentless,'” Smoskowitz said. “You can tell that's something Maddox has been told his whole life, and he embodies that. That kid is relentless. I'd put him on my team any day of the week.”

Schultz remembered the pause in the middle. “He was just like, 'We love you, man.' Then he paused and said, 'Be relentless,' because he instilled that in me right from the get-go,” he said. “I'd say that's a big part of my game. And just to have that support behind me, to have him and the whole country behind me, it feels good.” His dad has spent the week as a supporter rather than an extra coach, offering to grab food for anyone on the team at the hotel. “Just to see him wearing a Canada hoodie up there, cheering me on, always looking me in the eyes and saying keep going. It means a whole lot,” Schultz said. “He's probably my biggest hero.”

Asked whether Schultz belongs in the same conversation as Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini at this age, Smoskowitz turned it around. “I know the other guys as a hockey fan, not as a coach, so I can't put him in any sort of category,” he said. “All I know is that if someone else is mentioned in the same breath as Maddox Schultz, they must be a hell of a leader.”

Canada White faces the United States in Friday's semifinal, and Canada has something to prove: the Americans thumped Canada White 7-2 in pre-tournament action. The USA, who had a bye, is also coming off two days of rest. Smoskowitz wouldn't say who starts in goal. “I think we have two of the best goalies in the whole tournament, and I don't really care who's in there, because I've got confidence in both guys.” He does want his team to keep its momentum. “You definitely want to simmer down tonight,” he said. “But once you're on this wave, you kind of want to ride it as well. The Americans, with two days off now, are going to have to ramp things up. We're already starting at a high pace, at a high level.”

The two teams met before the tournament, but Smoskowitz said that game taught him more about his own group. “I think we learned more about ourselves than the Americans,” he said. “The team always determines what kind of structure the coach can throw at them, and good coaches play to the strengths of their team.” Schultz has the rematch circled. “Our video sessions are going to be huge,” he said. “They're a good team. We're really going to get them back.”

Standouts
Maddox Schultz (CAN-W): player of the game with a hat trick and an assist, including the goal coming off the 5-on-3 kill. Relentless.
Jace Voortman (CAN-W): a power-play goal, the assist on Cloutier's go-ahead goal, and the game-saving stick on an open net during the 5-on-3.
Jacob McKinnon (CAN-W): the opening goal and two assists, plus a shorthanded breakaway and a hard forecheck all night.
Cruz Jim (CAN-W): a goal from the blue line through traffic and an assist on the opening goal.
Kane Cloutier (CAN-W): the go-ahead far-post finish late in the second and a dangerous rush in the first.
Dylan Mingo (CAN-W): 15 saves on 16 in relief, including key stops on the 5-on-3 and a shorthanded chance late.
Niilo Jokinen (FIN): Finland's player of the game with two goals and an assist; flying all night with tons of pace and great hands.
Liius Nurmi (FIN): a power-play bomb and the setup on Jokinen's first goal.
Aamos Vahvaselka (FIN): a goal and an assist from the blue line; a strong two-way prospect listed at 5-foot-11 who plays much bigger.
Elias Oksanen (FIN): a goal, a shot off the bar and a constant agitator who drew Schultz into a penalty.

Full scouting reports at PuckBunker.com