Yahoo Sports Canada Blank Finns, Latvia On Deck
EDMONTON -- One down, three to go.
Edmonton Oilers prospect Beau Akey and Team Canada won their first game of the World Junior Championship. With Team Canada being a favorite to win Gold at the tournament, it's unsurprising that they defeated their first opponent in official tournament play on Boxing Day.
What might be surprising is how convincingly they defeated Finland.
Finland has a great team, so to blank them 4-0 is a big deal. Canada got goals from four different players: Gavin McKenna, Easton Cowan, Luca Pinelli, and Matthew Schaefer.
A 31-save shutout for Carter George in his first 2025 #WorldJuniors game.🍩 #IIHF @hockeycanada pic.twitter.com/g0EnYfgrvv
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) December 27, 2024
The real story of the game was goaltender Carter George. George stopped all 31 shots he faced to pick up his first win of the tournament. With the shutout, he earned the Best Player of the Game award for Team Canada.
Underutilized Beau Akey
The lone Oilers prospect had an uneventful game for Team Canada. Beau Akey operated as the team's seventh defender.
He played four shifts which totalled a meager 2:38 of ice time. As the game wore on, Akey played less. In the first period he played 1:50. He skated 44 seconds and four seconds in the second and third.
With this little deployment, it makes one wonder if it would have been better for Akey to not be on the team in the first place.
Latvia's Tournament Opener
Team Canada will play Latvia today at 5:30 PM. Latvia has yet to play a game in the tournament, and will be in tough against the powerhouse Team Canada.
The game will be broadcast on NHL Network.
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