SHORE SCORES TWICE AS CANADA EAST ENDS U.S. REIGN WITH SEMIFINAL WIN

LANGLEY, B.C. – Devin Shore (Ajax, Ont./Whitby, OJHL) scored a pair of highlight-reel goals as Canada East advanced to the gold medal game at the World Junior A Challenge for the second year in a row with a 4-2 semifinal win over the United States on Friday afternoon.

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The victory avenges Canada East’s 6-4 loss to the U.S. in last year’s gold medal game and ends the Americans’ streak of consecutive WJAC gold medals at three.

Canada East will play in Sunday night’s gold medal game (TSN2, 5 p.m. PT) against the winner of Friday’s late semifinal between Canada West and Sweden.

Shore opened the scoring four minutes in on a breakaway, going backhand to forehand to beat American netminder Ryan McKay, and gave the Canadians some breathing room with the 4-2 goal midway through the third period, outwaiting McKay before using a deft touch to slip the puck just over the goal line while standing behind the goal line.

Patrick Megannety (Oakville, Ont./Georgetown, OJHL) and Tylor Spink (Williamstown, Ont./Cornwall, CCHL) also scored goals for Canada East, which has never won the World Junior A Challenge, losing in three gold medal games – 2006 and 2007 to Canada West and last year to the U.S.

Ray Pigozzi and Andy Welinski had the goals for the Americans, who failed to advance to the gold medal game for the first time since their tournament debut in 2007, when they settled for bronze.

The U.S. will face the loser of the Canada West-Sweden semifinal in the bronze medal game on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. PT).

Penalties:
   00:45 USA 2 Brian Cooper (Tripping)

Penalties:
   10:15 CAN E 4 Paul Geiger (Cross Checking)
   13:19 CAN E 8 Kyle Dutra (Interference)
   18:13 CAN E 18 Drake Caggiula (Closing Hand on Puck)

Penalties:
   01:58 USA 2 Brian Cooper (Clipping)