IIHF – Canada perfect in prelims

For almost two full periods, underdog Norway went toe-to-toe with Canada.

In a must-win game for Norway at the 2025 IIHF World Men’s Under-18 Championship, the Norwegians allowed two goals in the first four minutes and change but got one late in the first and created some headaches for Canada.

Still, the heavily-favoured defending champions from Canada skated away with an 8-1 win to finish the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0 record and first place in Group A.

The Canadian win didn’t come easy and the turning point came late in the second period, when Alessandro Di Iorio and Lev Katzin scored goals 43 seconds apart to give the tense Canadians a 4-1 lead and some breathing room. Canada fired an incredible 32 shots at Norway’s Felix Timraz-Westin in the second and a total of 63 in the game.

This game wasn’t a Picasso by any stretch for Canada, which entered the game already knowing that it had clinched first in the group. Norway, on the other hand, needed a win in any fashion to avoid Wednesday’s relegation game against Switzerland.

Canada lacked details in the first, especially in its defensive zone, and gave up a few good chances to Norway.

“It wasn’t very good for us,” said Cootes of Canada’s first period. “We were a little too casual. We have to be better in the D zone and, on our passes, just execute better. We have to be better than that.”

Canada struck just 39 seconds into the game as Ryan Roobroeck completed a nice give-and-go with Jack Nesbitt to score his third of the tournament.

Canadian captain Braeden Cootes then scored on a powerplay and it was 2-0 less than five minutes in. Cootes’ goal came on a nice passing play by Brady Martin and Roobroeck, who set up Cootes for a one-timer that beat Timraz-Westin.

Goaltender Jack Ivankovic wasn’t tested much in the first but did rob Norway’s Linus Trygg, who was alone in the Canadian slot and got a hard shot off on Ivankovic.

With 4:25 left in the first, Norway scored just its fourth goal of the tournament on a nice forehand to backhand move by Mikkel Eriksen.

The second period was dominated by Canada but Timraz-Westin was perfect until the quick strikes by Di Iorio at 16:53 and Katzin at 12:36. Cootes scored his second of the game and fifth of the tournament with 14 seconds left in the second to make it 5-1.

“They were coming at us hard for sure but then we started picking it up and playing our game,” said Canadian defenceman Carson Carels about the strong…