Russia edge Canada in World Sledge Hockey Challenge

After posting semi-final wins on Thursday (5 February), the US and Russia will meet in the gold medal game at the 2015 World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Leduc, Canada on Saturday (7 February).

The USA beat Korea 8-0 in the early semi-final, while Russia edged Canada’s National Sledge Team in the late game.

The puck will drop Saturday night at the Leduc Recreation Centre at 7pm ET on the gold medal game, which can be seen live on TSN, the official broadcaster of Hockey Canada. Check local listings for broadcast times.

Saturday’s game will be the first gold medal game meeting between the USA and Russians. The US has appeared in the final in four of the last five tournaments, winning gold in 2009 and 2012, while Russia will play for gold for the first time in just its second appearance at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge.

In Thursday’s early semi-final, Dan McCoy set a tournament record with five points (one goal, four assists) in the third period and the USA scored seven times in the final 15 minutes to turn a one-goal game after two periods into an eight-goal victory. Josh Misiewicz and Adam Page each added two goals for the US, while Kevin McKee, Nikko Landeros and Declan Farmer had one apiece.

In the late game, Sergey Panfilov scored both goals – 1:12 into the first period and with 52.9 seconds left in the third – to lead the Russians to their first win in six all-time tries against Canada. Kevin Rempel was the lone goal scorer for the Canadians, who missed out on the gold medal game for the first time in tournament history.

The USA finished first in the preliminary round with a perfect 3-0 record, including wins over Russia (3-2), Korea (8-1) and Canada (2-0). The Russians came third, with a victory over South Korea (4-1) along with losses to the US and Canada (2-0).

Canada and South Korea will meet in the bronze medal game on Saturday (2pm ET), a game that will be available through a live and free FASTHockey webcast at www.hockeycanada.ca/wshc.

Tickets for both the gold medal game and bronze medal game are sold out.

The 2015 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool will feature reigning champions Canada, the USA, Russia, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Norway and Japan, in Buffalo, New York, USA.

The B-Pool equivalent runs from 15-21 March and will feature South Korea, Great Britain, Slovakia, Poland, newly qualified Austria and the host nation Sweden.