Team USA faced Canada for a silver medal at the 2017 Para Sled Hockey World Championship in Gangneung, South Korea.
GANGNEUNG, South Korea -- Nikko Landeros (Johnstown, Colorado) scored, but the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team lost to Canada, 4-1, to finish with a silver medal at the 2017 Para Sled Hockey World Championship in Gangneung, South Korea.
It is the third silver medal in world championship play for Team USA, which finished the tournament with a 6-0-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record.
Declan Farmer (Tampa, Florida) was named the tournament's top forward after totaling 16 points (12-4) in seven games. Team USA, which opened the season by capturing the 2016 World Sled Hockey Challenge crown back in December, completes the 2016-17 campaign with a 10-1-0-1 record.
"It's disappointing to fall short of our goal," said Guy Gosselin, head coach of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team. "Give Canada credit, they played a tough game. We just weren't able to find that extra gear tonight." Both teams traded chances early before Josh Pauls (Green Brook, New Jersey) nearly opened the scoring for the U.S. with a sliding shot from the right hashmark that was turned aside by Canadian goaltender Dominic Larocque.
Brad Bowden gave Canada a 1-0 lead just three minutes later by tucking a wrist shot under the crossbar from the left face-off dot. Canada doubled its lead within a minute when Liam Hickey curled around Andy Yohe (Bettendorf, Iowa) and beat Steve Cash (Overland, Missouri) with a low wrist shot from just inside the blue line.
With just over six minutes to play in the second period, Tyler McGregor netted a pair of goals 12 seconds apart to make it 4-0 for Canada.
In the final frame, Landeros scored just six seconds into a five-on-three advantage to make the score 4-1 with 2:58 to play.
Cash finished with 13 saves for the U.S.
