Canada claimed a decisive victory over Sweden at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup Wednesday at Rogers Place in Edmonton. 

The victory clinched first place for Canada over Sweden in Group A. Undefeated Canada finished the preliminary round with nine points compared to five for Sweden, which suffered its first loss of the tournament. 

Whitehorse hockey phenom Gavin McKenna sniped home the winning goal off a face-off with 7:28 left in the third period to put Canada up 2-0. Cole Reschny won the draw straight back to McKenna, who, despite two Swedish players attempting to block his shot, somehow got a low seeing-eye shot through a tiny opening and beat Swedish goaltender Isak Sorqvist low to the stick side. 

Benjamin Kindel had beaten Sorqvist with a top-shelf one-timer goal off a feed from Caleb Desnoyers earlier in the game, with 7:20 left in the first period. 

Sweden’s Milton Gastrin scored just 33 seconds after McKenna’s goal to answer back for the Swedes. Ivar Stenberg set up Gastrin for an open-net goal with a pass through the legs of Canadian goalie Jack Ivankovic, who was caught out of position. 

The goal resulted in a nail-biting ending in which Canada got away with icing the puck several times in the final minutes of the game. 

McKenna was particularly strong in the third period. On one play in the Swedish zone, he spun away from a Swedish checker on the boards and created a lane to the net, unleashing a shot. A last-second poke-check by a Swedish defender resulted in the puck barely going over the crossbar. 

On another sequence on the penalty kill, McKenna poked the puck from Swedish blue-liner Hugo Hallin and was about to break away toward the Swedish net when he was tripped by the defender. Despite the trip, McKenna got up, picked up the puck and got a shot on goal in spite of a hold on him by Hallin. 

The resulting penalty to Hallin negated a man-advantage for Sweden, resulting in a stretch of four-on four hockey. 

McKennna also missed a chance to put the game away with 1:43 left when he missed an empty net. 

His game-winning goal gives him five points in three games in the tournament. 

Reschny had a strong game for Canada and was involved in multiple scoring chances, as well as setting up the game-winner. 

Despite McKenna’s heroics, the goalies dominated the Player of the Game awards. 

Ivankovic was named Player of the Game for Canada and Sorqvist earned the same honour for Sweden. 

Ivankovic was particularly spectacular during one short-handed sequence in the second period when he made multiple point-blank saves and got a big assist from defenceman Quinn Beauchesne, who also blocked another point-blank shot during the same frenetic sequence. 

Ivankovic was solid all night in goal for Canada, making several big saves throughout the game. 

Canada outshot Sweden 30-24. 

Canada finally has a day off today. They will face-off with intense rival the United States in a semifinal game on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Yukon time. 

Sweden will take on Czechia in the other semifinal at 2:30 p,m.

The winners will tangle in the gold medal game Saturday at 5 p.m. Yukon time. 

The losers will battle for bronze at 12:30 p.m. 

The semifinal and medal-round games will all be played at Rogers Place and broadcast on TSN and RDS.