REID’S THREE LEADS CANADA WEST TO SEMIFINAL
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - For the first time since 2007, there will be an all-Canadian match-up at the World
Junior A Challenge.
Cam Reid scored the first hat trick by a Canada West player since 2007 and John Dunbar tied a WJAC record
with four assists as the Canadians set up a semifinal date with Canada East (Friday, 7 p.m. AT) with a 7-3
win over Belarus on Thursday night.
The two Canadian teams have not met at the tournament since the 2007 gold medal game, won 4-1 by Canada
East. The westerners also took the only other meeting, a 4-3 victory in the final game in 2006.
Both Canada West and Belarus came out firing in the opening period, and the end-to-end hockey produced
five goals in a span of 6:05.
Reid opened the scoring for the Canadians, lifting a shot over the glove of Belarussian goaltender
Stanislau Artynski. Just 38 seconds later, however, Raman Malinouski took advantage of a turnover at the
Canadian blue line, beating netminder Sean Bonar on the backhand to tie the game 1-1.
After Connor Jones has restored the Canada West lead at 12:42 he struck again 2:21 after that, deftly
deflecting a shot from Cody Kunyk through the legs of Artynski. Belarus struck back quickly again, though, as
Aliaksandr Famin shoveled a loose puck past Bonar after a scramble in the Canadian crease to again get the
deficit back to just one.
Nursing a one-goal advantage heading into period two, the Canadians threw everything but the kitchen sink
at the Belarus goal, with Reid’s second of the game 3:45 into the period chasing Artynski from the net.
The change didn’t seem to matter to Canada West, which outshot the Europeans 20-7 in the second period and
went up 5-2 when Ben Gallacher’s seeing-eye point shot beat Dzmitry Volkau.
Siarhei Karolik got that one back for Belarus very late in the period, making it 5-3 after 40 minutes.
Canada West made sure there would be no drama in the third period, allowing just six Belarussian shots in
the final period and rounding out the scoring on goals from Reid, who joined Kyle Turris and Casey
Pierro-Zabotel as Canada West players with WJAC hat tricks, and Ryan Marshall.
Dunbar, who was in on all three of linemate Reid’s goals, became the fifth player with four assists in a
single game.
The loss puts Belarus in the fifth-place game for the third time in four tournament appearances. It will
face Sweden on Saturday night (7 p.m. AT). | 
