TRURO, N.S. – Tim Theocharidis scored with 41 seconds left in overtime to lift Canada East to a 3-2 win over Switzerland in the fifth-place game at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge on Friday at the RECC.
Theocharidis banged home a rebound from in tight past Swiss goaltender Luca Jan Hollenstein to give Canada East victory.
With the game tied 1-1 in the third, Dario Wuthrich gave the Swiss the lead with just under five minutes remaining.
However, Colin Doyle scored for East with just 19 seconds left in regulation with goaltender Jett Alexander on the bench for an extra attacker.
Colton Kalezic had the other goal for East, while Gian-Marco Wetter, on a power play, netted the other marker for Switzerland.
Alexander made 28 saves in the game, while Hollenstein made 29 stops.
Also on Friday, Russia and the Czech Republic met in he bronze-medal game (result not available at press time).
Thursday
Semifinal
Canada West 5 vs. Czech Republic 1
Brett Stapley scored a pair of goals to pace Canada West to a 5-1 victory over the Czech Republic on Thursday in a semifinal game.
Canada West will meet defending champion United States in the gold-medal game today at 3 p.m. at the RECC in a showdown of the only two teams to ever win WJAC gold; the U.S. has claimed seven titles, while West owns the other four.
The U.S. blanked Russia 5-0 in the other semifinal on Thursday.
Angus Crookshank, Dylan Holloway and Brendan Budy scored other goals for West on Thursday, which scored four times in the final nine minutes to punch its ticket to the gold medal game.
Jan Kern had the lone goal for the Czechs.
West goaltender Zach Rose made 26 saves for the win.
The loss sent the Czech Republic to the bronze medal game against Russia on Friday in a rematch of last year's third-place game, which was a 7-4 win for the Russians.
If a preliminary round game between the U.S. and Canada West is any indication, then expect Saturday’s gold-medal game to be a gem. On Wednesday the teams battled in what many feel was the game of the tournament. The U.S. edged Canada West 2-1 on a late third-period goal in front of a full house at the RECC.
