Gauthier wins first medal for Canada at Universiade, women’s hockey to play for gold, men’s hockey and curling teams seek to Make the Final

Short track speed skater Yoan Gauthier won Canada's first medal at the 26th Winter Universiade on Wednesday, earning bronze in the 1500-metre race.

Meanwhile, Canada's women's hockey team qualified for the gold-medal game and will face Russia, and both the Canadian men's curling and hockey teams advanced to the semifinals.

Team Canada website /Trentino 2013 website

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Gauthier of Rivière-du-Loup, Que., won Canada's first medal of this Universiade with a time of 2:17.74 in the men's 1500-metre race in short track speed skating Wednesday.

South Korea's Noh Jin-Kyu took the gold at 2:16.81, and fellow South Korean Um Cheon-Ho won silver at 2:16.85, almost a full second ahead of Gauthier.

Noh is the world record-holder in the event (2:09.041, Shanghai, 2011) and the 2011 overall world champion, while Um set a new Universiade mark of 2:16.052 earlier on Wednesday, in the quarter-finals.

Gauthier, a veteran of two junior world championships in 2012 and 2013, was consistent throughout the day on his way to the podium, winning his qualifying heat (2:27.185) before placing second in both his quarter-final (2:16.164) and semifinal (2:16.767).

“I was a little stressed in the early goings. It was as if I had forgotten how to skate against other countries. But as the competition progressed I felt more and more comfortable,” said Gauthier, a Collège de Maisonneuve student. “In the final, I was pleasantly surprised by my performance considering I was the only Canadian against, among others, three South Koreans."

“I didn’t realize right away I had just won Canada’s first medal of the Games. It makes it even more special.”

Vincent Cournoyer of Boucherville, Que., and Guillaume Bastille of Rivière-du-Loup, both members of the senior national team, also made it to the semifinals in the men’s 1500 but failed to advance to the medal race. Cournoyer placed second in the B Final to finish ninth overall, and Bastille, a 2010 Olympic gold medallist in the relay, was disqualified in the first semi and took 12th place in the final standings.

In the women’s 1500, all three Canadians also made it to the semifinals but none of them qualified for the medal round. Montreal’s Namasthée Harris-Gauthier and Keri Morrison of Burlington, Ont., both earned spots in the B final and finished ninth and 11th overall, respectively.

CURLING
Brendan Bottcher and his team from the University of Alberta finished off the round robin in winning form on Tuesday and are headed for the semifinals to face Great Britain, a team they edged 5-4 in the opening draw.

Despite a morning loss to Switzerland’s Mario Freiberger, Bottcher and his squad of Mickey Lizmore (third), Brad Thiessen (second), Karrick Martin (lead) and Parker Konschuh (alternate), with coach Rob Krepps, had already qualified for the playoffs before the final game, thanks to their 6-2 record.

In the final round robin game against Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson on Tuesday night, Bottcher and his squad served notice they were more than ready to take on the previously undefeated leaders. The Canadians led 6-0 after the three ends. They allowed the Swedes to take their deuce in four, then hit back with four more in the fifth for a 10-2 lead at the break. Eriksson was able to score one in the sixth before conceding the 10-3 Canadian victory.

With the win, Canada (7-2) finishes the round robin in second place behind Sweden (8-1) and advances to the semifinals against Great Britain (6-3), looking for their first FISU medal since they won the inaugural Universiade tournament in 2003. The Canada-Great Britain match begins at 3 a.m. EST (9 a.m. Trentino time). The other Final Four matchup will see Sweden battle either the United States (5-4) or Norway (5-4), who will face off in a tie-breaker.

The bronze-medal match is also scheduled for Thursday, at 9 a.m. EST, while the tournament final is set for Friday at 8 a.m. EST.

On the women’s side, Canada’s playoff hopes were crushed by a 9-5 loss to South Korea. Laura Crocker and her Wilfrid Laurier University team of third Sarah Wilkes, second Jennifer Gates, lead Cheryl Kreviazuk, alternate Breanne Meakin and coach Garry Coderre, battled back with three points in the sixth and a steal in the seventh, but the Koreans held off the challenge.

The Canadian women finish in sixth place with a 4-5 record, matching their result from two years ago in Turkey.

WOMENS HOCKEY
Gabrielle Davidson netted a hat-trick and Amanda Parkins tallied five points as the Canadian women’s hockey team advanced to its third straight Winter Universiade final thanks to a dominating 15-0 semifinal victory over Japan, Wednesday evening.

It was the second win over Japan (3-3) in three days for the CIS all-stars (6-0), who beat the same opponent 9-1 on Monday to finish first in round-robin play. In Friday’s gold-medal match at 2 p.m. EST (8 p.m. Trentino), the Canadians will face Russia (4-2), a team they blanked 5-0 in preliminary round action on Dec. 12.

The Russians edged the United States 3-2 in the other Final Four matchup, earlier on Wednesday.

Canada is aiming for its third Universiade title in as many tries, after winning the inaugural FISU tournament in 2009 in Harbin, China, and repeating two years ago in Erzurum, Turkey. And Canada is 20-0 all-time at the biennial competition and has now outscored its opponents by a 169-12 margin overall.

“Every game we seem to get a little stronger, which was our goal from the beginning. The more time we spend playing together, things seem to be coming a lot easier,” said Team Canada head coach Howie Draper. “We talked about psychological momentum as a team, and I think we had that in this game. It was important for us to jump out to a good start against Japan so that we can carry on from where we left off in the previous contest. We were able to successfully do that, which put the Japanese players at a disadvantage.”

MEN'S HOCKEY
Tyler Carroll scored two goals while Chris Culligan and Éric Faille tallied three points apiece as the Canadian men’s hockey team qualified for the semifinals at the Winter Universiade thanks to a 6-0 quarter-final win over Slovakia, Wednesday night.

The result sets up yet another meeting at the biennial tournament between Canada and archrival Russia, Friday at 10:30 a.m. EST (4:30 p.m. Trentino) in the early Final Four matchup. The second semi will see the United States battle Kazakhstan at 2:30 p.m. EST. Both games are streamed live at www.fisu.tv.

In other quarter-finals, Russia (4-0) beat the Czech Republic 5-1, the USA (3-1) shut out Italy 5-0 and Kazakhstan (4-0) dominated Latvia 6-1.

The Canadians and Russians – the two-time defending champions - have met at each of the last four FISU tourneys. Russia prevailed 4-2 in the 2011 semis, 4-2 in the 2009 gold-medal match and 6-0 in pool play in 2005, while the Canucks triumphed 3-1 in the 2007 final to capture their third Universiade title.

In 13 previous appearances at the competition, Canada has reached the podium 12 times, including three gold medals (2007, 1991, 1981), three silver and six bronze.

“Any time you get Canada and Russia, it’s going to be great for hockey fans,” said Team Canada head coach Gardiner MacDougall from the reigning CIS champion University of New Brunswick. “You have two very good teams and it will be exciting."

“The whole point of this tournament is to get better every game and it’s not always going to be a straight line. Maybe the performance in the last game allowed us to go up two steps today instead of one. We had more urgency, were more business-like. We played the way we have to play, we have to play Canadian hockey but we have to be disciplined and take less penalties. Special teams hurt us the last game, special teams won us the game tonight.”

Canada has just one loss in the tournament, dropping a 4-2 decision to Kazakhstan on Monday in their third and last preliminary round contest.

Results
Wednesday Dec. 18
ALPINE SKIING
Women’s Giant Slalom
Top Canadian 30. Maëlle Bergeron, Quebec City, Que., 1:56.92; 38. Sandrine David, Montreal, Que., 1:58.01; 45. Émilie Lamoureux, Mt. Tremblant, Que., 1:59.67.

BIATHLON
Mixed Relay (women 2x6 km & men 2x7.5 km)
9. Canada (Jennifer Paterson, St. Albert, Alta.; Keely MacCullough, Calgary, Alta.; Ryan Burlingame, Whitehorse, Yukon; Guillaume Bertrand, St. Barnabé, Que.), lapped.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Semifinal
- Canada 15 Japan 0

MEN’S HOCKEY
Quarter-Final
Canada 6 Slovakia 0

SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Men’s 1500m – A Final
1. Noh Jin-Kyu, South Korea, 2:16.810; 2. Um Cheon-Ho, South Korea, 2:16.852; 3. Yoan Gauthier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que., 2:17.742.

Men’s 5000m Relay – Heat 2
1. Canada (Guillaume Bastille, Rivière-du-Loup, Que.; Vincent Cournoyer, Boucherville, Que.; Patrick Duffy, Oakville, Ont.; Sébastien Landry, Montreal, Que.), 6:56.724, advances to semifinals Thursday at 12:30 p.m. EST (6:30 p.m. Trentino).

Women’s 1500m
Top Canadian - Namasthée Harris-Gauthier, Montreal, Que., 2:26.902, finishes 9th overall

Tuesday Dec. 17
ALPINE SKIING
Men’s Giant Slalom
Top Canadian 22. Philippe Rivet, St. Lambert, Que., 1:49.71

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Women’s 5km Free
Top Canadian 54. Andrea Lee, Black Creek, B.C., 14:38.7

Men’s 10km Free
Top Canadian 70. Peter Beisel, Owen Sound, Ont., 26:26.8

CURLING
Women's Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Game 9 - South Korean 9 Canada 5
NOTE: Canada finished at 4-5, does not advance to semifinals, and finishes sixth overall.

Men’s Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Switzerland 9 Canada 5
Canada 10 Sweden 3
NOTE: Canada finisheds at 7-2, finishes second in round-robin, and advances to semifinals vs Great Britain (6-3) Thursday

SNOWBOARDING
Women’s Halfpipe
Top Canadian 8. Audrey McManiman, St. Ambroise de Kildare, Que., 57.75.

Monday Dec. 16
BIATHLON
Women’s 10km Pursuit
Top Canadian 34. Keely MacCullogh, Calgary, Alta.

Men’s 12.5km Pursuit
Top Canadian 46. Guillaume Bertrand, St. Barnabé, Que., +8:55.5

CURLING
Women’s Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Game 7 - Canada 5 USA 3
Game 8 - Canada 7 Japan 2

Men’s Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Game 7 - USA 10 Canada 3

WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Canada 9 Japan 1
NOTE: Canada finishes round-robin with 5-0 record in first place

SNOWBOARDING
Women’s Halfpipe – Qualification
Top Canadian 7. Audrey McManiman, St. Ambroise de Kildare, Que., 65.25, advances to semifinals

Sunday Dec. 15
ALPINE SKIING
Women’s Super G
Top Canadian 25. Sandrine David, Montreal, Que., 1:32.96

BIATHLON
Women’s 7.5 Sprint
Top Canadian 34. Keely MacCullogh, Calgary, Alta., 27:57.5

Men’s 10km Sprint
Top Canadian 45. Ryan Burlingame, Whitehorse, Yukon, 28:50.6

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Mixed Team Sprint Free
Top Canadians 21. Harry Seaton, Orillia, Ont., and Andrea Lee, Black Creek, B.C., 19:18.34

CURLING
Women’s Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Game 6 - Canada 10 China 2

Men’s Preliminary Round (9 matches)
Game 5 - Canada 7 Italy 1
Game 6 - Canada 8 Czech Republic 5

WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Canada 9 USA 1

MEN’S HOCKEY
Kazakhstan 4 Canada 2

SKI CROSS
Men’s Ski Cross
7. Matt Brady, Burlington, Ont.