The Canadian men’s hockey team’s 2024 Winter Youth Olympic participation period ended on Wednesday.
Heartbreakingly, Canada lost to Finland 5-4 in the bronze medal match in a penalty shootout at the Gangneung Hockey Center in South Korea.
Canada took a 3-0 lead less than seven minutes into the first period with goals from Alessandro Di Laurio, Tynan Lawrence and Keaton Verhoef.
Finland scored one goal in the first period, followed by two more in the middle, and fought back with four consecutive goals.
However, with just over six minutes left in the third period, Matisse Preston scored the tying goal, sending the game into overtime.
In the shootout, both Canadian shooters missed, but the Fins scored on both chances.
Canadian goaltender Carter Esler had an incredible effort with 32 saves.
“I’m very proud of our team. We played great throughout the tournament, but unfortunately we had a few unlucky bounces and things didn’t go our way,” Di Iorio said in a media release. He spoke at “Wearing the Maple Leaf is an honor, and I think our entire group will remember this experience for a long time.”
As a result of the round robin, Canada defeated Finland and South Korea to take the lead in Group B. In the semifinals, Canada lost to the United States 6-5 in a penalty shootout.
In the gold medal game, the United States defeated the Czech Republic 4-0 on Wednesday morning.
Lacombe’s Daxon Rudolph, who was named captain of the Canadian team, will represent Canada at the Olympics for the first time. He finished the tournament without scoring.