Hayton helps Canada White in victory

A full day of action opened the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge on Sunday which included a pair of overtime games.

In a game that featured local interest, Team Canada White beat Team Canada Black 4-1.

Soo Greyhounds forward Barrett Hayton picked up an assist for Team Canada White.

“It was really good to get a win off the start,” Hayton said.

Hayton credited goaltender Olivier Rodrigue, who made 32 saves in the victory.

“He was amazing,” Hayton said. “He kept us in the game.”

Team Canada White Coach Brent Kisio also commended Rodrigue who came through on the penalty kill.

“We took way too many penalties tonight and that’s something we have to clean up,” Kisio said. “Your best player (on the penalty kill) has to be your goaltender and tonight he was.”

Tristen Nielsen scored three times for Team Canada White while Raphael Lavoie had the other goal.

Owen Lalonde had the lone goal for Team Canada Black.

“We had a lot of the zone play and we were happy with that,” Team Canada Black Coach Paul Boutilier.

At the John Rhodes Community Centre, Aleksandr Khovanov scored on the power play at 2:47 of overtime to give Team Russia a 4-3 victory over Team Sweden. Khovanov finished the day with a pair of goals and an assist.

Grigorii Denisenko added a goal and an assist for Team Russia while Pavel Gogolev also scored. Adam Bokvist scored a pair of goals for Sweden.

The final game of the day at the Essar Centre also saw overtime as Team USA erased a 2-0 deficit and beat Team Czech Republic 3-2 in overtime. Joel Farabee scored 29 seconds into the extra frame to give the Americans the victory. Bode Wilde and Patrick Giles also scored for Team USA. Jakub Lauko and Tomas Dajcar scored for the Czechs.

Sunday’s other game saw Team Finland beat Team Canada Red 3-2.

Arttu Nevasaari scored a pair of goals while Niklas Nordgren had the other Finnish goal. Ryan Merkley and Riley Stotts scored for Team Canada Red.

Monday sees round robin action continue with four games on the schedule beginning at noon at the Essar Centre as the Czech Republic faces Team Canada Black. The other two games at the Essar Centre see Team Canada White face Team USA at 4 p.m. and Team Canada Red face Team Sweden at 7:30 p.m. At the John Rhodes at 6 p.m. Finland faces Russia.