In what’s become pretty much the historical matchup in the finals of recent international para hockey tournaments, it will be the United States taking on Canada this evening in the gold-medal game of the 2019 Canadian Tire Para Hockey Cup, being played at the Paradise Double Ice Complex.
And if the Canadians are to beat the Americans in the final of a major international para hockey tournament for the first time in the last couple of years, they’re counting on their fans to help them do it.
That support shouldn’t be a problem.
It is fair to say this is the final that was expected, at least going into the Paradise tournament. After all, it’s been Canada against the U.S. in finals at the last four world championships, the most recent Paralympic Games and the last four Para Hockey Cups (previously known as the World Sledge Hockey Challenge).
It’s absolutely spot-on to say this is the final wanted by almost everyone who has attended Canada’s first four games the event. There’s more than Canadian nationalism involved; there’s also Newfoundland nationalism, considering one of the host side’s top players is 21-year-old Liam Hickey of St. John’s.
It has certainly contributed to the large, loud crowds taking in the evening games in Paradise. And now you can add in the fans’ hopes of their being able to see the Canadians defeat their arch-rivals in an event-deciding tilt for the first time since the 2017 world championship and for the first time since 2013 in this particular tourney.
The two teams advanced to today’s 6 p.m. game with semifinal wins on Thursday night; Canada downed Russia 3-1, while the United States blanked the Czech Republic 8-0.
“It was beautiful to see; we got every guy in that room working hard and we’re really playing for each other,” said Dominic Cozzolino, who had a goal and an assist for Canada in Thursday’s win over the Russians.
“The support here at home has been nothing but amazing... Thank you to everyone for the continued support. It doesn’t go unnoticed!”
Liam Hickey
Cozzolino said he and his teammates felt the boost from the stands.
“I think so much of tonight’s success came from the crowd here,” he said. ”Newfoundland has been an awesome place, [the fans] support us so much and it’s so loud in the rink.”
It was thought echoed by Hickey in a posting on his Twitter account (@liamhickey1998) as he commented on a Hockey Canada video telling his story,.
“The support here at home has been nothing but amazing,” said Hickey. “Can’t thank everyone enough, especially the people in this video and the rest of my family,
“Thank you to everyone for the continued support. It doesn’t go unnoticed!”
Playing the game with teammates decades older than him through the Avalon Sled Dogs association helped @liamhickey1998 develop into an elite defenceman for Canada's National Para Hockey Team. @NLSledge | @HC_Para | @HkyNL | #CTParaCup
— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) December 5, 2019
FEATURE ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/KwMMNrjkXo
In the semifinal win, there was also the built-in incentive of coming up against a Russian team that had prevailed 3-2 in a shootout in their head-to-head meeting in the round-robin portion of the competition.
“I think we came in extremely motivated,” Hickey told hockeycanada.ca after the game.
“It was a tough loss to [Russia] in the preliminary round, so we wanted to come out and wanted to make sure that we got the job done. We stayed positive, we knew that we had to come shift after shift, keep the positivity up on the ice and on the bench, and we did that.
“You could tell the feeling on the bench, that everyone was firing on all cylinders.”
Rob Armstrong and James Dunn had the other tallies for Canada, while Hickey had two assists, giving him six points (2G, 4A) through four games this week.
Hickey and his teammates know they’ll have to be even better in the gold-medal final.
The Americans have outscored the opposition 27-1 in winning all four of their games so far in the tourney. That included a 4-1 victory over the Canadians in preliminary play.
Today’s championship final will be preceded by the bronze-medal game between Russia and the Czech Republic at noon.
Twitter: @telybrendan
