CANADA WINS THIRD STRAIGHT SPENGLER CUP
DAVOS, Switzerland – Canada has won its third Spengler Cup title in as many years following a New Year’s Eve 3-0 win over Switzerland, tying event host HC Davos for most all-time titles at 15.
This is the first time Canada has won three Spengler Cup titles in a row since its 1995-98 streak at the oldest club tournament in the world.
Kevin Poulin (Montreal/KHL Medvescak Zagreb, EBEL) earned his first shutout of this year’s tournament and third victory in as many outings, stopping all 36 shots he faced. Maxim Noreau (Montreal/SC Bern, NLA) led the Canadians in points, assisting on Canada’s first goal by Zach Boychuk (Airdrie, Alta./HC Slovan Bratislava, KHL) at 7:34 of the second period, and following up with his own goal just shy of four minutes later. David McIntyre (Pefferlaw, Ont./EV Zug, NLA) potted on just past the halfway mark of the third frame to round out the scoring. The game stats and story can be found at HockeyCanada.ca.
“Every time you win a tournament it’s always a great feeling,” said Poulin. “We had a special group, we played well, we played hard and the Team Canada way all along and I think we deserved the win tonight.”
This year’s tournament was also used by Hockey Canada as one of the last opportunities for the organization’s Canada’s National Men’s Team management and coaching staff – led by general manager Sean Burke (Windsor, Ont./Montreal, NHL) and head coach Willie Desjardins (Climax, Sask.) – to evaluate players within a short-term competition setting before selecting the group that will represent Canada at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
“We had a lot of guys today that played great,” said Desjardins. “Switzerland has a good team, a really good team, and a lot of guys gave themselves a better chance because of today.”
Canada has now won the Spengler Cup 15 times (1984, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017) as well as being a nine-time runner-up (1985, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010).
For more information on Hockey Canada and Canada’s National Men’s Team Program, please visit HockeyCanada.ca, or follow through social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Twitter.com/HC_Men.
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