WATSON SCORES HAT TRICK, ONTARIO HITS DOUBLE DIGITS AGAIN IN ROUT OF ATLANTIC

Press Release

DRUMMONDVILLE, QUE. – Spencer Watson (London, Ont./Kingston, OHL) scored a hat trick, one of 14 skaters with at least one point, as Ontario cruised to an 11-1 victory over Atlantic on Tuesday afternoon at the 2013 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

After beating Slovakia 12-0 on Sunday, Ontario became the first team since Pacific in 2006 to score at least 10 goals in a game twice in one tournament.

Dante Salituro (Willowdale, Ont./Ottawa, OHL) was Ontario’s top scorer with two goals and two assists, while Michael Dal Colle (Vaughan, Ont./Oshawa, OHL) had two goals and a helper.

In total, six players finished with at least two points – in addition to Salituro and Dal Colle, Jared McCann (London, Ont./Sault Ste. Marie, OHL), Josh Ho-Sang (Thornhill, Ont./Windsor, OHL) and Robby Fabbri (Mississauga, Ont./Guelph, OHL) had a goal and an assist each, and Roland McKeown (Listowel, Ont./Kingston, OHL) added two assists.

Damian Bourne (Oakville, Ont./Mississauga, OHL) was the other goal scorer for Ontario, which had a 43-7 advantage in shots on goal through two periods, and finished the game with a 60-13 edge.

Lucas Batt (Lewisporte, N.L./Victoriaville, LHJMQ) had the lone goal for Atlantic, momentarily pulling his team to within a goal at 2-1 midway through the second period before Ontario exploded for four goals in 5:45 to open up a 6-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Mason McDonald (Halifax, N.S./Acadie-Bathurst, LHJMQ) was busy in the Atlantic goal, allowing five goals on 39 shots in just over 33 minutes of work before giving way to Antoine Landry (Caraquet, N.B./Miramichi, NBPEIMMHL), who gave up six goals the rest of the way.

Matthew Mancina (Lakeshore, Ont./Leamington, GOJHL) picked up his second win in as many starts for Ontario; he has stopped 35 of 36 shots in total.

The victory puts Ontario on the verge of a berth in the semifinals – a Quebec loss to Slovakia on Tuesday night would put Ontario into the final four, although a Quebec win would mean the winner of Wednesday’s Ontario-Quebec preliminary round finale (7:30 p.m. ET) would join the U.S. in the semis from Group B.

Atlantic finished its preliminary round at 1-3; it will wait for round robin play to conclude on Wednesday before finding out which placement game it will play in Thursday.  

 (Nathan can be reached at nathanfournier@mainehockeyjournal.com)