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Gold-medal performance gives Gauthier confidence boost

Down 2-0 to Sweden 11 minutes into the gold-medal battle at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup under-18 hockey tournament, Taylor Gauthier was called off the bench to help Team Canada dig itself out of the hole.
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Canada goaltender Taylor Gauthier celebrates the team’s victory over Sweden following the Hlinka Gretzky Cup gold medal game in Edmonton on Aug. 11. Canada won 6-2.

Down 2-0 to Sweden 11 minutes into the gold-medal battle at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup under-18 hockey tournament, Taylor Gauthier was called off the bench to help Team Canada dig itself out of the hole.

Tapped to replace Nolan Maier, who had given up two goals on three shots, the 17-year-old Prince George Cougars goalie was perfect the rest of the way, Gauthier stopped all 16 shots he faced as his teammates scored six unanswered goals in a 6-2 victory.

For Gauthier, who backed up Maier in all but one of the other tournament games, the chance to be at the bottom of the post-game dogpile with teammates a week ago Friday in front of 10,000 frenzied fans at Rogers Centre in Edmonton, stands as the highlight of his hockey career so far.

"I'm getting back to earth now," said Gauthier Friday, as he made the drive from his home in Calgary to Prince George, set to begin his second season with the Cougars.

"It was crazy, the adversity we went through as a team, and we just kept fighting for every inch and at the end of the day it was probably the best feeling in the world. Obviously we got off to a bit of rough start but we were buzzing right off the start and I knew if we got the next one things would work out. My mindset going in was just get the next one and go from there."

Canada didn't take long to respond to the goaltending change. Forty-one seconds after Gauthier entered the game, Sasha Mutala scored the first of his two goals and about two minutes later Kirby Dach tied it 2-2. Towards the end of the period Alexis Lafreniere made it a 3-2 game and they never looked back. It was Canada's third-straight win.

"Sweden was a really good team with some top-end talent and they were difficult to stop but I think we did a good job and played well defensively," said Gauthier, one of 11 WHL players on Team Canada. "At the end of the game, when the countdown hit around two seconds I looked at the clock and I heard everyone on their feet cheering I kind of blacked out. The next thing I remember was going up to grab the gold medal."

The fact Canada reached the gold-medal game left the Americans feeling cheated at the end of a 6-5 overtime loss to Canada in the semifinal. Replays showed the puck on the stick blade of Canada's Dylan Cozens, still in the act of shooting when time expired. But the tying goal counted and Josh Williams ended it 1:44 into OT.

"It is what it is, I didn't really have anything to say about it and at the end of the day we scored when it counted and came out with the win," said Gauthier.

Canada's only loss came in pre-tournament action, a 4-3 defeat to the Czech Republic. The Canadians took out their frustrations in their next game against Switzerland, 10-0, beat Slovakia 4-2 (Gauthier's only tournament start), and finished the round robin with a 4-3 win over Sweden.

The Cougars picked Gauthier 10th overall in the 2015 WHL bantam draft and the U-18 tournament was his third as part of Hockey Canada's national program.

He played in the World Under-17 Challenge last year in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek and was part of the Alberta team at the U-16 Western Canada Challenge Cup in Calgary in 2016, a tournament he won in overtime. As one of only two goalies on the U-18 team, that distinction wasn't lost on Gauthier.

"Every time you get to throw on that Canadian sweater it's a huge honour, to be able to represent millions of kids who would want to be in that position, I'm extremely proud I got the opportunity to do that," said Gauthier, who finished with a 1.11 goals-against average and .943 save percentage over two games.

"I think I did what we needed to to get the team to win and that's really all you can ask for. I made it clear to them I would compete hard for each start but I if didn't get it I would be a god team guy and I was ready to go at any time they needed me and I think I proved that in the finals there. I did a good job coming in off the bench. I was very focused before the game and I was just happy I could shut the door and give the team a chance."

Jason LaBarbera of the Calgary Hitmen, who played most of his minor hockey in Prince George before going on to play in the NHL, served as Team Canada's goaltending consultant.

Cougars training camp starts next Friday and Gauthier says he's ready to rejoin his teammates.

"I think we're going to be hard team to play against every night and we're going to have good chemistry," said Gauthier.

"There's a lot of potential in our core group and we just have to work hard as a group and not get complacent and keep getting better.

"Every time you go into a tournament playing the best guys at your age group in the world and you're playing well and winning, that's obviously a huge accomplishment and you feel good about yourself. But you put it in the past and just build off of it and I'll do what I can to win as many games as we can this year."