Canada was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Junior Hockey Championship for the second year in a row on Thursday evening.
Adam Jecho scored the winning goal 39 seconds into the third period, on the power play, and the Canadians lost 4-3 to the Czech Republic.
Petr Sikora, Jakub Stancl and Eduard Sale scored the other goals for the Czechs, who also eliminated Junior Team Canada in the quarterfinals last year. Michael Hrabal made 29 saves.
Tanner Howe, Porter Martone and Bradly Nadeau responded for Canada, which will not be in the final four for a second consecutive year, a first since the country established its program of excellence in the early 1980s.
Carter George stopped 22 shots and Brayden Yager collected two assists for Canada, which never really found its way to the national capital.
The Czechs will face the United States in the semifinals on Saturday. Finland will face Sweden in the other semi-final.
Trailing 3-2 in the third period, Canada tied the game on Nadeau’s second goal of the tournament with 4:18 remaining.
But Canadian defenseman Andrew Gibson found himself in the penalty box with 2:27 remaining for kneeing an opponent.
Jecho then broke the Canadians’ hearts with a one-timer that beat George on the short side.
The Czech Republic, which won the silver medal in 2023 and the bronze in 2024, opened the scoring after just 43 seconds of play, as Sikora scored his fourth goal of the tournament during a two-on-one run.
Canadian forward Cole Beaudoin then received a five-minute penalty and was ejected from the game for kneeing Sikora, who returned to the game immediately afterwards during the Czech power play.
Canada, however, leveled the score with a man less. Hrabal stopped Yager on a breakaway, but the Canadian captain then found Howe, who scored his first goal of the competition, in front of the net.
That’s when Sam Dickinson scored an own goal. The defenseman wanted to knock the puck out of the semi-circle with his glove, but instead pushed it into the net. The goal was credited to Stancl.
The Czechs then silenced the crowd at the Canadian Tire Center with two seconds left in the first period. Sale scored his fifth goal of the tournament on another two-on-one run.
Canada’s players heard a few boos in the second period since they were not threatening, but Sale was punished for kneeing and Martone deflected a shot from the blue line by Tanner Molendyk to reduce the gap to one only goal with 2:20 left in the middle period.
The Canadians continued to apply pressure in the third period.
Mathieu Cataford thought he had tied the game midway through the period, but the goal was disallowed for obstructing the goalkeeper. Head coach Dave Cameron unsuccessfully challenged the decision.
Easton Cowan had the best chance to score on the Czech power play and Nadeau then tied the score.
Canada played well in its first match of the tournament – a 4-0 victory over Finland – but then fell apart with a 3-2 shootout loss to Latvia, an unconvincing win by 3-0 against Germany and a 4-1 loss against the United States.
