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After a dominant victory for Team Canada in last year’s edition of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the tournament will once again return to Europe, precisely to Břeclav, Czechia and Trenčín, Slovakia, for its 32nd edition. But before the puck drops for the annual U18 tournament, join us for a recap of all of last year’s action!
Czech fans were left relatively pleased with their team’s performance in 2022, with the Czechs making the semi-finals for the first time in five years, qualifying from top spot in Group B. They got off to the perfect start – edging past the Finns 4-3 in a shootout and went on to beat Germany 7-2 and take down the US 3-1, ending their hopes of advancing to the top four.
Group A was dominated by home team Canada with its exceptional line-up of players, including five first-round picks in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft – Calum Ritchie, Brayden Yager, Zach Benson, Colby Barlow and Tanner Molendyk.
Team Canada was well and truly unstoppable, only letting in a single goal from Slovak Peter Císar throughout the entire Group Stage! They also scored a jaw-dropping 26 goals and, of course, qualified for the semi-finals from top spot in Group A. The second qualifiers were Sweden, while Slovakia and Switzerland were locked out of the top four.
The Tre Kroner paid the Czechs back for a pre-tournament friendly loss by beating them 6-2 in a game they controlled from start to finish. Finland’s U18 team did their best against Team Canada but ultimately fell 1-4 in the semis.
The battle for bronze saw Czechia take on Finland in an evenly-contested game. The score was locked at 1-1 for the first half of regulation before an Arttu Alasiurua goal at the halfway point saw the Scandinavians take a lead they would not lose. The Finns secured bronze with an empty netter in the final period to finalise the score at 3-1.
The final offered no surprises – Sweden lost 1-4 to a near-perfect Canada who won their 23rd title, cementing themselves even further as the most successful team in Hlinka Gretzky Cup history.
From a scoring and stats perspective, Canadian players were the most productive. Calum Ritchie, drafted #27 in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, scored 10 points in five games (4+6) to top the scoring table, while Team Canada goaltender Scott Ratzlaff, who manned the net for almost all of his team’s games, had an astonishing save percentage of 97,6%!
Czechia’s Eduard Šalé, drafted #20 by the Seattle Kraken, recorded six points (4+2), while goaltender Michael Hrabal, who would go on to become one of the highest-picked goalies of the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, recorded a save percentage of nearly 92%.
Slovakia’s selection of U18 talent were left disappointed. The team only won a single game in overtime and finished sixth overall. Their offence was led by Ondrej Molnár (0+3) and Adam Cedzo (2+0), while Samuel Urban was their goalie of choice.