Brett Connolly has the chance to bring world junior gold home to Prince George.
Connolly, a P.G. minor hockey product and captain of the Prince George Cougars, helped Canada to a dominating 4-1 win against the United States Monday night in Buffalo. The game was a semifinal contest at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship and sent Canada on to Wednesday's gold-medal final against Russia.
"It was pretty cool," Connolly said of Monday's victory, which unfolded in front of a loud and proud pro-Canadian crowd. "It didn't really feel like (the win) was on their turf with the fans that we had. We just wanted to stick to our game plan. We thought it was going to be a close game but fortunately we got up by a few goals. It was a good win."
Canada led 2-0 after the first period and then scored the only goal of the second. Another Canadian marker early in the third put the game on ice, but the U.S. did finally get on the board later in the final frame.
Connolly, a first-timer at the world juniors, beautifully set up linemate Quinton Howden for Canada's second goal. On the play, Connolly flew down right wing, into the U.S. zone, and fed Howden a perfect saucer pass, which Howden re-directed past American goaltender Jack Campbell.
"We had a three-on-two and Howden was driving the net very well and I just saw him go to the net there," Connolly said. "He had a step on the D so I just put it over to him and he made a good play to put it in. It was a good job by him for driving the net and kudos to him, he put it in and got us another goal."
