Image Credit: Andy Devlin / Hockey Canada Images
August 12, 2018 - 10:14 AM
EDMONTON - One Kelowna hockey player is bringing home some gold.
Kelowna Rockets defenceman, Kaedan Korczak, helped Team Canada win their 22nd U18 summer gold medal at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup last night at Rogers Place in Edmonton, a media release says.
Team Canada beat Sweden 6-2 in the gold medal game.
"It’s amazing. It's truly an honour to win gold with these guys. We’ve worked so hard for a couple weeks to get to this point," Korczak says in the release. "Words can’t describe how I feel right now."
Korzak, the 2017-2018 Rockets Rookie of the Year, finished the summer tournament with three assists in five games as well as eight penalty minutes en route to the gold medal. Not only did he help offensively, but playing on the top pair, he was relied upon defensively and was solid in late game situations.
Originally from Yorkton, Sask. Korzak will be back in a Rockets uniform to enter his second WHL season on Friday, Aug. 31 when Kelowna hosts the Victoria Royals at Prospera Place for the Rockets first game of the 2018-2019 WHL preseason.
Through Team Canada's five games in the tournament, they had a perfect 5-0 record starting with a 10-0 win over Switzerland on Monday August 6th. They then beat Slovakia 4-2 the following night, before topping Sweden 4-3 to finish atop their group in the round-robin on Wednesday, August 8th.
Canada then faced the United States on Friday, August 10th in the semifinal, getting the edge 6-5 in overtime to advance to the gold medal final for a rematch with Sweden. After falling behind 2-0 early on Saturday they evened the score before the opening frame came to a close. They then gained a 4-2 lead in the second period before securing the victory with two third period goals for a 6-2 final.
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