Canada advances to Para Cup gold-medal final with win over Czech Republic

Liam Hickey, Vincent Boily and Tyler McGregor scored for Canada en route to a 3-1 Para Cup semifinal victory over the Czech Republic on Friday in Charlottetown.

Canada will meet the United States in Saturday's gold-medal final after the Americans whipped China 13-2 in the other semifinal.

Trailing 2-0, Filip Vesely scored the Czech Republic's lone goal at 3:35 of the third period. Boily had scored 85 seconds earlier to give Canada a 2-0 lead. McGregor restored Canada's two-goal cushion at 6:33 of the third. Dominic Cozzolino chipped in with two assists.

"We went into this game believing that it was going to take investment into the process because of how stingy and hard the Czechs play against us," said Canadian head coach Russ Herrington. "It was a reminder throughout to just keep playing the right way, keep doing the right things and allow the game to open up when it will open up.

"If you try and force things against a team like [the Czechs], that is dangerous for us. It was really about patience, that we needed to be ready to capitalize on the chances and, luckily, we did that enough to get the victory."

Canada outshot the Czechs 22-9 and went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Czech Republic went 0-for-3 on the power play.