04-05-2025
U-18 Men's Worlds: Eight Tournament Standouts As Canada Wins Gold
The under-18 World Championship finished up last night in Texas with Team Canada defying the odds to win the gold medal over a strong Swedish squad while the Americans took home the bronze in an overtime thriller.
Coming into the tournament, Canada faced questions of whether they had enough firepower and depth at just about every position outside of goaltending. While their netminders, specifically Jack Ivankovic, were stellar throughout the tournament, they found offense from up and down the lineup. Braeden Cootes led the team in scoring with 12 points, while Lev Katzin and Brady Martin both scored in double digits.
Against Sweden in the gold medal game, they showed their depth of scoring with a 7-0 win featuring six different goal scorers. Ivankovic was fantastic in net for Canada as well, making 28 saves on the night to hold Sweden off the board. It was their second straight gold and a well-earned victory without some of their top available names.
In the bronze medal game, things were a bit tighter. The teams traded chances with the Americans controlling the first period, Slovakia taking over a bit in the second and the Americans controlling the pace in the third. But a clutch goal from Slovakia's Jan Chovan tied the game with under eight minutes to go, forcing overtime.
The overtime was tense with the Americans having the edge in possession. With 4:23 left on the clock, Ben Kevan picked up a loose puck in the slot and snapped it home to give the Americans the win. Everyone doubted this American squad because it wasn't a strong year for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
Even though they brought in several notable reinforcements, Kevan included, it was going to be an uphill battle on paper. The Americans exceeded those expectations to capture their fourth-straight medal at the tournament.
With the tournament now over, let's take a look at some of the players who saw their stock rise and fall for this year's NHL draft.
Ekberg took a massive step in the second half of his first OHL season with Ottawa, and he wanted to carry the momentum of that into the U-18s with the understanding that his stock had fallen after a poor first half.
Not only did he carry the strong play into the tournament, but he led all scorers with 18 points in seven games and won MVP in the process. He was four points ahead of everyone else, and his skill and playmaking were on full display. This tournament couldn't have gone better for Ekberg individually, outside of winning the gold.
The mobile, 6-foot-2 right-shot defender was simply masterful at times for Sweden, notching 14 points, which was good for second in the tournament. And he used his skating and fluidity to find success at both ends of the ice.
Some questioned what his offensive ceiling could be after a very solid season at Boston University, because although there were some flashes of high-end puck moving, he never consistently put together good offensive performances, using his strengths to defend and transition the puck up ice. This tournament showed that in a situation where he's against his age group, he was more than capable of putting up some offense.
With Michael Misa and Matthew Schaefer missing due to injury, the question of where Canada's offense would come from was prominent heading into the event. Cootes came in and immediately made it known that he was going to be a catalyst for this team as their captain.
His impressive play saw him put up 12 points, including a five-point night to open the tournament against Slovakia. Cootes was already viewed as a fringe top-20 guy by consensus, but this tournament could see him move into the top half of round one securely.
A leg injury suffered early in the year took Mooney out of the lineup for nearly two months, and when he came back, he looked like a shell of the electric, skilled, center-driven player we had all come to know. His size (5-foot-7) was always going to be an issue for NHL teams, but his play style helped mitigate the concerns.
His play began to pick up over the last month or so, and then the U-18s arrived and Mooney was wheeling and dealing. He looked as good as he has all year and announced his return to form with some big-time plays en route to a bronze medal.
Whenever Benak has thrown a Czech jersey on, he has been one of the best players on the ice, and he showed that throughout this tournament. He got a late start with Czechia because he was playing in the USHL playoffs, but he still managed to put up seven points in five games, showing out for his home nation.
Benak, like Mooney, will face questions about his size (5-foot-7), but his play throughout the last year has earned him a draft pick, and his U-18s should entice teams even sooner than expected.
Slovakia needed to get some timely offense from their lineup at this tournament, and they certainly got that from Chovan. He was always there when they needed him, it seemed, and his three points in a 4-3 overtime loss to the USA in the bronze medal game showed that. He tied the game late and looked like their best player at various points throughout this tournament. His game is simple but effective.
Everywhere Ivankovic has played, he's put up stellar numbers and put his team in a position to win. Some scouts worry about his size, being just six feet, but the technical elements of his game, combined with the athleticism, have made him the best goalie on the ice in just about every game he's played over the last couple of years. Backstopping Canada to a U-18 gold medal with a .961 save percentage should have NHL teams interested pretty early on draft day.
There's been some buzz around his name this year, but he wasn't consistently mentioned among the top goalies in the draft class. His performance at the U-18s was simply fantastic, giving Slovakia the insane goaltending they would need to compete for a medal.
His two worst games both came against Canada, and he helped keep the Slovaks in the bronze medal game against the U.S. until overtime. The 6-foot-5 netminder could hear his name quite early at the draft.
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