Any success Matthew Wood of Nanaimo has in the IIHF U-18 world championship tournament will benefit him twofold. The former Victoria Grizzlies forward and second-year Team sa国际传媒 forward is looking to reach the podium to avenge the 6-5 loss to Finland in last year’s quarter-finals, something that can only raise his stock in this year’s NHL draft. Not that there is much further he can climb after being slotted the No. 4-ranked North American skater for the draft.
Wood keeps stating his case, scoring a hat trick Tuesday to lead sa国际传媒 to an 8-3 victory over Czechia to close out pool play at 3-1.
“Seeing the puck go in the net is a huge confidence booster, not just for me, but our whole team as we look ahead to the quarter-finals,” Wood said in a statement from Porrentruy, Switzerland.
That moment will come Thursday at 8:30 a.m. PT when sa国际传媒 meets host Switzerland in the quarters.
Wood’s line of Macklin Celebrini from Vancouver, who plays in the USHL for Chicago Steel and is committed to Boston University of the NCAA in the fall, and Calum Ritchie of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, accounted for seven points.
“I think our whole line had a great game tonight,” said Wood.
“We moved the puck well and it’s nice for our line to keep rolling as a unit.”
Wood is eighth in tournament scoring with five goals and two assists for seven points in four games. The six-foot-three Harbour City product was the youngest player in NCAA Div. 1 this past season and recorded 11 goals and 34 points in 35 games as a freshman in leading the University of sa国际传媒icut Huskies after winning the sa国际传媒 Hockey League scoring championship the previous season with the Grizzlies.
Ty Halaburda from Victoria — a Juan de Fuca Minor Hockey Association and Pacific Coast Hockey Academy product who plays in the WHL for the Vancouver Giants and is the 89th ranked North American skater for the 2023 NHL draft — scored his first goal of the tournament and added an assist for sa国际传媒 against the Czechs.
“We got four lines,” Canadian forward Riley Heidt of the WHL’s Prince George Cougars said in a statement.
“All the guys on this team are top scorers on their club teams back home. Everyone can score and we all know that.”
sa国际传媒 head coach Jeff Truitt from the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL said he is glad to see line cohesion taking place.
“When you come over and only have a short period of time with new guys, we knew the chemistry might not be there right from the start. We knew if we worked hard the chemistry would come and we could do something in this tournament,” he said.
“We have been preaching from the outset to just get better each day and if we do the little things, it will come. Guys have been great about doing what we’ve asked and to just follow the plan and we are getting better.”
Playing the hosts in the quarter-finals will be a challenge.
“We know it’s going to be a boisterous crowd facing Switzerland,” said Truitt.
“We earned this finishing second in our pool, we have the match-up and we just have to be prepared like we have been.”
