2009-10 National Men's Under-18 Team

CANADA SUFFERS 5-0 LOSS AT WORLD UNDER-18 CHAMPIONSHIP

BOBRUISK, Belarus _ Canada's chances at the IIHF World U18 Championship took a serious blow with a 5-0 loss to the United States on Friday.

Photo Gallery

American goalie Jack Campbell turned aside all 30 shots and won a duel over Canada's Calvin Pickard, who is ranked ahead of him by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau heading into the draft.

The Canadian team saw its record drop to 1-2 and now needs Belarus to upset Switzerland on Saturday to advance to the quarter-finals. Canada wraps up the round robin Sunday against Sweden.

The game against the Americans got out of control quickly after Jason Zucker scored at 5:35 on a play that Canadian coach Guy Carbonneau says should have been blown dead.

“We thought Pickard had covered the puck under himself, but the whistle didn't come,'' said Carbonneau. “From then, it seemed to go downhill. A little bit after that, we took a penalty for delaying the game and they scored on a rebound. On the next power play they scored.

“We were down 3-0 and I think we lost our composure. There was adversity and we didn't respond.''

Zucker and Bryan Rust each scored twice for the U.S. while Austin Watson added a single.

The Americans will move on to the playoff round.

“We had such a great effort tonight by every single guy in the locker-room,'' said coach Kurt Kleinendorst. “Under the circumstances, to step up and perform like that for 60 minutes says an awful lot about this team. One of our goals was that we wanted to get better every game and we're doing well with that so far.''

One advantage the U.S. enjoys over Canada is that its team plays together all year. The Canadian squad is cobbled together of guys whose major junior teams are out of the playoffs and only had one exhibition game together before the tournament started.

Carbonneau noticed a difference in the quality of the teams.

“We did a lot of good things, but not enough,'' he said. “We were trying to play individually. We turned the puck over a lot. You've got to give the U.S. credit _ they're well-structured, they play together all year.

“They played a really good game at the right time.''

Canada won this U18 tournament in 2003 and 2008 and took the silver medal in 2005. It finished fourth last year.

Goals/Buts :
05:35 USA Jason Zucker (Brandon Saad, Nick Shore)
06:58 USA Bryan Rust (Chase Balisy, Jon Merrill) PP/AN
17:09 USA Jason Zucker (Adam Clendening) PP/AN

Penalties/Pénalités :
01:00 USA Matt Nieto (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)
05:57 CAN Greg McKegg (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)
10:38 USA Derek Forbort (Tripping/Faire trébucher)
13:00 CAN Ryan Murray (Holding/Retenir)
14:30 USA Bill Arnold (Tripping/Faire trébucher)
16:28 CAN Greg McKegg (Slashing/Coup de bâton)
18:40 CAN Ryan O’Connor (Hooking/Accrocher)

Goals/Buts :
17:08 USA Austin Watson (Connor Brickley)

Penalties/Pénalités :
01:53 USA Bench/Banc (Too Many Players/Trop du joueurs)
08:26 USA Adam Clendening (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)
10:33 USA Brandon Saad (Hooking/Accrocher)
14:48 CAN Brett Connolly (Hooking/Accrocher)
17:24 USA Jarred Tinordi (Roughing/Rudesse)
17:24 CAN Gabriel Desjardins (Roughing/Rudesse)

Goals/Buts :
06:02 USA Bryan Rust (Bill Arnold, Matt Nieto)

Penalties/Pénalités :
06:24 USA Austin Watson (Charging/Assaut)
10:08 CAN Christian Thomas (Slashing/Coup de bâton)
18:56 USA Bryan Rust (Roughing/Rudesse)
18:56 CAN Max Reinhart (Roughing/Rudesse)
19:51 USA Jarred Tinordi (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)