Prince George Cougars centre Riley Heidt set up Matthew Wood for his hat-trick goal and Canada went on to defeat Czechia 8-3 Tuesday at the IIHF World Under-18 Hockey Championship in Switzerland.
The win locks up second place in Pool A for the Canadians (3-1), who will play Switzerland in a quarterfinal playoff on Thursday (10:30 a.m. PT).
Heidt’s assist was his first point of the tournament in two games since joining the team after the Cougars were eliminated from the second round of the WHL playoffs Wednesday night at CN Centre with their four-game loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Coby Barlow, Ty Halaburda, Peter Martone, Nick Lardis and Lucas Dragicevic also scored for Canada. Macklin Celbrini picked up three assists.
Eduard Sale, Jiri Felcman and Martin Matejicek were the goalscorers for Czechia.
Carson Bjaornson made 23 saves as Canada outshot Szechia 46-36.
The other quarterfinal matchups are: Finland vs. Latvia, U.S. vs. Czechia, and Finland vs. Slovakia.
The winners advance to semifinal on Saturday and the championship game is set for Sunday (10 a.m. PT).
