McDonald makes 24 saves in Canada win over Sweden

Imatra, Finland - Mason McDonald made 24 saves and Jake Virtanen scored twice for Team Canada as they beat Team Sweden 3-1 in their first game of the Under-18 World Championships this afternoon.

Team Canada picks up three points with the win and takes a 1-0-0-0 record in the tournament. Sweden falls to 0-1-0-0.

Virtanen, of the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL, opened the scoring for Canada at the 6:45 mark of the first period with Rowland McKeown (Kingston Frontenacs, OHL) drawing the lone assist. Sweden outshout the Canadians 11-4.

It didn't take long for Canada to increase its lead in the second period as Virtanen added his second goal of the game just 1:03 into the period on the power play. The goal was unassisted. The Swedes cut the lead in half with Gustav Forsling scoring on the power play at 10:57 with Daniel Muzito and Axel Holmstrom drawing assists. Canada had a 10-4 shot advantage in the second period but Sweden led the shots 18-14 after two periods.

In the third period, Matthew Barzal (Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL) scored an unassisted goal at 3:07 to regain the two-goal cushion for Canada. Shots were 7-4 in favour of Sweden.

McDonald earned the win in goal for Team Canada making 24 saves on 25 shots. Linus Soderstrom took the loss for Sweden making 15 saves on 18 shots.

Canada plays Germany next on Saturday, April 19 at 10 a.m. AST.

In earlier tournament games today, Switzerland upset the U.S.A. 4-2; Russia used overtime to get by Slovakia 3-2; and Finland beat Denmark 6-1.