Penticton Vees forward Cole Shepard and Team Canada Red defeated Sweden 4-3 in overtime on Monday at the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
William Dufour (Quebec City, Que./Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL) finished a two-on-one for the winner in overtime, giving Canada Red a narrow win against the number one team in Group B. Canada Red sits at the bottom of their pool (0-1-1), trailing Russia by one point who are tied with Finland in second place with three points each.
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Dufour jumped up to join a streaking Seth Jarvis (Winnipeg, Man./Portland, WHL), one-timing a set-up past Swedish goaltender Jesper Wallstedt to give the Canadians an important extra point as they found the win column for the first time.
Crosby. Ovechkin. Stamkos. Marchand. Lemieux. Toews.
— World U17 Challenge (@HC_WU17) November 6, 2018
Who would the 🇨🇦🔴 forwards choose as their fantasy linemates?#WorldU17 pic.twitter.com/hpgL8p6iQH
Early on it looked as if Red would leave the qplex with all three points as it took an early two-goal lead with goals from Stephen Halliday (Toronto, Ont./Central Illinois, USHL) and Jacob Perreault (Hinsdale, Ill./Sarnia, OHL).
Related: Russians edge Canada Red at World Under-17 Hockey Challenge
The second period belonged to Lucas Raymond; the highly-touted Swede cut the deficit in half on a five-on-three power play early in the second period when he blasted a slap shot past Canadian netminder Will Cranley (Peterborough, Ont./Ottawa, OHL), and he went top shelf on the short-side a little more than six minutes later to pull the Scandinavians even.
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Alexander Holtz put Sweden ahead with just under six minutes to go, using his speed to avoid a hit before getting a shot past the glove of Cranley, but Matthew Maggio (Tecumseh, Ont./Ottawa, OHL) forced a turnover behind the Swedish net and found Evan Vierling (Aurora, Ont./Flint, OHL) to tie the game just 24 seconds later.
Line-ups for 🇸🇪🆚🇨🇦... #WorldU17 pic.twitter.com/PvxwsJPgm3
— World U17 Challenge (@HC_WU17) November 5, 2018
Overtime featured chances at both ends before the winner, with Raymond narrowly missing his hat trick goal moments before Dufour ended it.
The teams finished dead even in shots on goal, 33-33.
Preliminary-round play ends Tuesday, with Sweden taking on Russia (12 p.m. AT) before Canada Red closes out its schedule against Finland (7 p.m. AT).
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