PENTICTON, B.C. – After posting semifinal wins on Saturday, Canada East and the United States will play for the gold medal on Sunday night at the 2010 World Junior A Challenge. The game can be seen live on TSN2, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET; visit www.tsn2.ca to find out how you can see the game in your area.

Canada East beat Switzerland 4-2 in the early semifinal, while the U.S. handled Canada West 5-1 in the late game, a rematch of the last two gold medal games.
The Americans are looking for their third gold medal in a row, having won the tournament in 2008 in Camrose, Alta., and last year in Summerside, P.E.I. Canada East has never won the gold medal, and will appear in the gold medal game for the first time since 2007. It took home silver in 2006 in Yorkton, Sask., and 2007 in Trail, B.C.

In Saturday’s early semifinal, Canada East got two goals and an assist from captain Nick Huard (North Bay, Ont./Woodstock, MHL) and 39 saves from Jordan Ruby (Tavistock, Ont./Wellington, OJHL) to advance. Robert Polesello (Bolton, Ont./Vaughan, OJHL) was credited with the game’s first goal after the Swiss mishandled the puck into their own net, and Maxime Dumond (Orleans, Ont./Brockville, CHL) scored the eventual game-winner for Canada East, which handed the Swiss their first loss of the tournament.

In the late game, the Americans scored twice in the game’s first 11 minutes en route to clinching their third-straight appearance in the gold medal game. Jimmy Mullin scored his tournament-leading fifth goal of the tournament to ice the game in the third period, while Caleb Herbert, Garrett Allen, Mike Parks and Nick Mattson also had goals. Clarke Breitkreuz (Springside, Sask./Yorkton, SJHL) had the lone goal for Canada West, which will not appear in the gold medal game for the first time in the tournament’s five-year history.

Canada West and Switzerland will meet for the bronze medal at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET. The game can be seen live via webcast through FASTHockey at hockeycanada.fasthockey.com.a