Hockey Canada
2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Daily Dose of the Dub: Canada captures gold at the U18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Written by Brandon Rivers on

 

For the second straight year, the Hockey Canada’s U18 team won gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. This time, they won all three group games, pulled out a controversial semifinal overtime win and then came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Sweden 6-2 and take the gold.

Sasha Mutala of the Tri-City Americans had two goals in the game, with the second rattling off his cage before going in. Kirby Dach (Saskatoon) and Josh Williams (Medicine Hat) also scored for Canada.

The U.S. fell to Russia 5-4 in the bronze medal game.

Here are the top scoring WHL players at the event:

Player Country GP G A Pts WHL team
Vasili Podkolzin Russia 5 8 3 11 Medicine Hat (not signed)
Kirby Dach Canada 5 2 5 7 Saskatoon
Josh Williams Canada 5 5 1 6 Medicine Hat
Peyton Krebs Canada 5 2 3 5 Kootenay
Dylan Cozens Canada 5 2 3 5 Lethbridge
Luke Toporowski USA 5 4 1 5 Spokane
Matthew Robertson Canada 5 2 2 4 Edmonton
Sasha Mutala Canada 5 2 2 4 Tri-City
Bowen Byram Canada 5 1 3 4 Vancouver
Kaedan Korczak Canada 5 0 3 3 Kelowna
Martin Lang CR 4 1 0 1 Kamloops
Oleg Zaitsev Russia 5 1 0 1 Red Deer
Sergei Alkhimov Russia 5 0 1 1 Regina
Nikita Sedov Russia 5 0 1 1 Regina
Dean Schwenninger SUI 4 0 1 1 Portland
Braden Schneider Canada 5 0 0 0 Brandon
Simon Kubicek CR 4 0 0 0 Seattle (not signed)
Matej Toman CR 4 0 0 0 Prince George

I’m sure the Tigers were putting a strong effort into signing Podkolzin before the event, but that effort has probably reached a fever pitch now, unless he has already told them their answer. If they could sign him, their trio of 2001-born forwards would be incredible with Williams and Henry Rybinski. Williams had a great tournament and showcased an electric wrist shot that should beat many WHL goalies this year. Rybinski had 12 points as a 16-year-old last year and the winger is poised for a big 17-year-old campaign.

Goalies

Player Country GP GAA Sv% WHL team
Taylor Gauthier Canada 2 1.11 0.943 Prince George
Dustin Wolf USA 3 2.64 0.909 Everett
Nolan Maier Canada 4 3.11 0.872 Saskatoon

Nicholas Marek named new Portland Winterhawks Communications and Broadcasting Director

This time the Winterhawks stayed south of the border for their new communications director. The 26-year-old comes to Portland from the NAHL’s Lone Star Brahmas, based in North Richland Hills, Texas. According to the press release from the Brahmas, Marek was responsible for calling their games on Hockey TV, managing the social media for the team, managing the website for the arena and creating graphics. He replaces the outgoing Evan Richardson who had this position last year.

Links and notes:

-Prince Albert has a great crop of 2002-born players and Ozzy Wiesblatt is one of them. New Raiders beat writer for the Prince Albert Herald Lucas Punkari has a nice piece on him.

-Sticking in P.A., a council member had to apologize recently for some negative comments he made on Facebook about the music played during a Raiders home game.

-Quinton Lisoway, a former Brandon Wheat Kings forward recently signed with the Rapid City Rush of the ECHL.

-Mason Shaw is feeling great now after a season-ending knee injury caused him to miss all of the 2017-18 campaign. Shaw has been signed to a professional contract with the Minnesota Wild and likely will not be back as an overage player for the Medicine hat Tigers.