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Cougars Gauthier, Toman playing in Sweden

Taylor Gauthier's season stopping pucks for the Prince George Cougars ended in mid-March when the Cats missed out on the Western Hockey League playoffs but the 18-year-old goaltender has not lost his focus on doing what he does best.
Gauthier stones T-birds_1
Prince George Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier slides across the crease to make one of his 37 saves in a 2-0 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds Nov. 3 at CN Centre on his way to his first career WHL shutout.
Taylor Gauthier's season stopping pucks for the Prince George Cougars ended in mid-March when the Cats missed out on the Western Hockey League playoffs but the 18-year-old goaltender has not lost his focus on doing what he does best.
Not with a world championship to try to win.
Gauthier is in Sweden as one of three Team Canada goalies battling for playing time in the IIHF world under-18 championship, which starts today in Umea and Ornskoldsvik. Canada opens the eight-team tournament today (10:30 a.m. PT) against Finland.
Gauthier played in 55 of the Cougars' 68 games this past season and finished with a 15-30-4-2 record, posting a 3.25 goals-against average and .899 save percentage with three shutouts. NHL Central Scouting, in its final list released earlier this week, ranked Gauthier seventh among North American goalies available in the June draft.
The Calgary native played in Monday's pre-tournament game against Russia and made 32 saves to preserve a 5-4 victory. The Hockey Canada website said Gauthier turned in a "terrific effort," to help establish himself at that level of competition. Dylan Cozens (Lethbridge Hurricanes, WHL) and Dylan Holloway (Okotoks Oilers, AJHL) each scored twice for Canada. 
The Canadians also played a pre-tournament game Sunday against Belarus. Alex Newhook (Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL) scored three goals, including the winner 45 seconds into overtime in a 6-5 win over Belarus. In that game, Dylan Garand (Kamloops Blazers, WHL) came in to relieve starter Jonathan Lemieux (Val-d'Or, QMJHL) for the start of the third period and blocked all nine shots he faced to cinch the victory.
In other tournament games, Canada will play Switzerland (Friday, 6:30 a.m. PT), Belarus (Sunday, 10:30 a.m.) and Czech Republic (Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. The other pool includes the United States, Sweden, Slovakia and Latvia.
Cougars centre Matej Toman, 18, is on the Czech roster. Toman, picked by the Cougars fifth overall in the 2018 CHL import draft, played 66 games in his rookie season with the Cats and collected nine goals and 11 assist for 20 points.
Toman, a native of Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, represented his country last August at the 2018 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup in Edmonton and won bronze with the Czechs at the 2017 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John. Gauthier won gold for Canada at the Gretzky-Hlinka Cup and also played for Team Canada White at the World U-17 Challenge. Gauthier also played in the Sherwin Williams CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in Red Deer, Alta., in January.
Quarterfinal playoffs will be played Thursday and the four winners will meet in the semifinal round on Saturday (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.). The bronze medal game will be played Sunday (6:30 a.m. start), followed by the championship game (10:30 a.m.).
All of Canada's games as well as the quarterfinals, semifinals and medal games will be broadcast on TSN.
n Cougars defenceman Cole Moberg, in his Central Scouting ranking, moved up 39 spots from his midterm position and is now listed 136th among North American skaters. The 18-year-old from North Vancouver finished third in team scoring with 13 goals and 40 points and won the Eric Brewer Award as the Cougars' top defenceman.