Canada finished fourth at the 2024 IIHF World Championships, but Whitehorse native Dylan Cozens of the Buffalo Sabres left his mark on the tournament.
Cozens led all goal scorers at the tournament with nine goals. He added two assists to finish with 11 points in 10 games. He finished with a plus-minus of +3. Cozens totalled 30 shots on goal and ended up with a shooting percentage of 30 per cent.
Cozens has now tallied an impressive 16 goals in 20 World Championship games over two World Championships.
Cozens added his ninth goal in the bronze medal game against Sweden on Sunday with his signature snipe, a wicked wrister to the top left corner of the net past Swedish goaltender Filip Gustafson. Cozens’ goal, 2:41 into the second period, tied the game 1-1.
He had a good chance on a rebound shortly after that to take the lead for Canada, but couldn’t finish it off, as the puck rolled off his stick.
Cozens spoke with TSN during the second intermission.
“I’m just so proud to be Canadian. Every time we throw on this jersey, it’s a big responsibility. You don’t want to let anyone down. I wear this jersey with a lot of pride. I just love playing for Canada.”
Of the upcoming third period, Cozens said, “We’re just going to leave it all out there. This is our last game for the summer, so there’s nothing to save it for. We’re here now, so we might as well go out and win.”
Despite Cozens’ heroics, Canada was unable to hold a 2-1 lead and succumbed to the Swedes 4-2.
Canada also fell to Switzerland in a dreaded shootout in the semifinals, 3-2. Cozens had the potential to have a big impact on that game, but, like the rest of the Canadians, couldn’t come up with the extra goal to send them to the finals.
Cozens had a one-timer stopped by Swiss goaltender Leonardo Genoni in overtime. He was also foiled by Genoni on a short-handed breakaway later in overtime. He was also stopped by Genoni right at the end of overtime.
In the shootout, with Canada trailing by one goal, Cozens had to score to keep the shootout going. Unfortunately, he was stopped one more time as he tried a similar deke on his backhand to the one he tried on the breakaway attempt in overtime.
Overall, though, the Worlds were an excellent bounce-back from a tough regular season for Cozens.
Besides leading the tournament in goal scoring, Cozens was named one of Canada’s top three players at the tournament.
His mother, Sue Bogle, said, “Dylan was obviously very disappointed they lost in the semi-final, as the gold medal is always the goal for Canada. He is a team player first and wanted the gold for Canada more than any individual accomplishments. Still a very good experience for him.”
Perhaps his excellent Worlds will lead to a resurgence in his production for the Sabres next season, as it has done in the past for players like his Worlds linemate Andrew Mangiapane of the Calgary Flames.
