That wasn’t the case as the Canadian men dominated the U.S. by a score of 7-2 to win its first FISU Winter World University Games medal since 2013. The win also solidified a perfect 7-0 record for Canada at the Games. 

“We had one goal coming in and that was gold,” Canadian forward Matthew Struthers said. “To achieve that with this group … I’ve never gotten so close to a group in two weeks.”

The U.S. was outmatched in nearly every single way and it showed right away. Canada jumped out to lead when Austen Keating tipped a shot from Justin Bergeron around seven minutes into the game. 

After the U.S. received a penalty for slashing, Canada utilized the man advantage to extend its lead and Brett Davis found the back of the net on a wrist shot from the left-hand faceoff dot. 

With a 2-0 advantage in the second period, Canada scored back-to-back goals from Bollers and Zachary Lavigne within two minutes of one another around the halfway point of the period. on the period. Bollers’ goal, which proved to be the game-winner, was scored on a one-timer from Timothy Shea, while Lavigne tipped in a shot from Emmett Powell. 

With 11 seconds left in the middle period, Canada’s Adam McCormick scored his team’s fifth goal of the contest on the powerplay.  

“You can’t take penalties and even if some were incidental, that killed us,” U.S. head coach Mark Taylor said. “Plus, when you’re down … it’s tough coming back.” 

Canada wrapped it, scoring barrage with a two goal third period. The first goal came from Stuthers and Tyler Hylland.

“I kind of just banked in,” Struthers said. “It didn’t really mean much. I was just happy to get the gold medal.”

Sam Ruffin, of Adrian College, netted the first goal for the United States on a 5-on-3 penalty kill late in the second period. The goal was set up by Emmett Powell, who stole the puck in the neutral zone before going on a two-on-one break with Ruffin.

“Who would’ve thought we would’ve scored on a three versus five shorthanded goal. You never know,” Taylor said.

     Brendan Mark scored the other goal for the U.S. on a shot from the point with five minutes left in the game.

     While the U.S. came up well short of a gold medal, the team’s silver medal winning performance marked the best finish by a U.S. men’s hockey team in the history of the Games. 

“We came up here and we wanted to do something special,” Taylor said. “We wanted to make some statements for our group and show that we could compete at this level. Ending up with silver certainly shows that. 

“For me being a North Country guy, I wanted to make sure we got to Lake Placid,” he added. “I wanted to make sure that we got to this game and I certainly wanted to make sure that we would win it, but the Canadian team had something they wanted to make sure of too and that was winning it.”