Tyson Jost is chasing a Canadian record and he and teammate Dante Fabbro are off to the Semi-Finals at the World Under-18 Hockey Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Jost picked up a hat-trick and finished with five points, tying Connor McDavid’s Canadian scoring record, as Canada pounded Switzerland 9-1 Thursday. Fabbro chipped in three assists, as Canada moves onto the final four on the weekend.
Jost tied McDavid’s record of 14 points by a Canada set in 2013 and with at least two more games to play (Semi / Gold / Bronze Medal Game), he has a very good shot at setting a new benchmark. The Vees’ Captain opened the scoring in the first period, short-handed, and added two more goals in the second and third respectively. The 17-year-old now leads the tournament in scoring, five points clear of the next highest scorer.
Fabbro is now sixth in tournament scoring and first among defencemen with eight assists in five games and has received rave reviews for his strong play at both ends of the ice during the tournament.
Hockey Canada Recap:
Thursday marked the start of elimination play at the 2016 IIHF U18 World Championship in Grand Forks, N.D., and Canada’s National Men’s Under-18 Team defeated Switzerland 9-1 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.
Tyson Jost (Kelowna, B.C./Penticton, BCHL) led the way with five points (3G, 2A) to bring his tournament total to 14 points (six goals, eightassists) – tying him with Connor McDavid (8-6—14 in 2013) for the most by a Canadian at a single U18 world championship.
“It takes 21 players to make one player good, and those guys in the locker room are all skilled, they all commit to defence, and all commit to offense; it’s just an honour to be able to play on this team. When you’re surrounded by players like that, you’re going to have success and it’s been really special for me so far,” said Jost. “What I see and what our coaching staff and our whole team see, it is that we just keep getting better each game and that is something that’s really important in these tournaments. You’ve just got to keep building going into the semifinals, and then hopefully the finals, so you’re pushing those building blocks.”
Special teams were a key difference in the game as Canada scored four powerplay goals and also added a shorthanded marker in the win.
“That first goal by Josty was huge to set the tone, then on the [penalty] kill, that was amazing – that was a great play by him. It was just clicking tonight; [the pucks] were starting to go in and if we can just carry that on into these next couple of games, that will be big for us,” said Brett Howden (Oakbank, Man./Moose Jaw, WHL).
Head coach Shaun Clouston (Viking, Alta./Medicine Hat, WHL) says they’re just trying to be clear and consistent in the way they play and the message they convey to the team: “As the game went on, especially after the first 5 minutes, I thought that penalty-kill that led to the shorthanded goal sparked us. The message was let’s work that hard with that much structure five-on-five. The commitment we have on the PK, let’s take that and match that five-on-five, and I thought the guys did really good on that.”
Along with their offense, it was also the play of goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick (Lower Sackville, N.S./Sherbrooke, QMJHL) who made a difference, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he faced to earn his third victory of the championship.
Canada will now face Sweden on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) in the semifinal. Full game stats and story are available here on the hockey Canada website.
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partner of Hockey Canada, is broadcasting all of Team Canada’s match-ups at the IIHF U18 World Championship – check local listings for details.
Canada has won seven medals at the IIHF U18 World Championship, including three gold medals (2003, 2008 and 2013).
