Oshawa General star Ritchie leads all scorers as Canada wins gold in U18 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup

Calum Ritchie scored in his third straight game and Scott Ratzlaff was stellar between the pipes as Canada dominated in the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup gold medal game with a decisive 4-1 win over Sweden Saturday night.

Ritchie, the Oakville native and Oshawa Generals young star, led all tournament scorers with four goals and ten points, while Ratzlaff of the Seattle Thunderbirds went 4-0 in the U18 event played in Red Deer, Alberta with a sparkling .976 SV%, a miniscule 0.50 GAA and two shutouts.

The victory was Canada’s record 23rd in the tournament, which serves as the unofficial world U18 hockey championship.

Tanner Howe, Ethan Gauthier and Brayden Yager also scored for the Canadians, who held period leads of 2-1 and 3-1 at the Peavey Mart Centrium in the gold medal game.

Hugo Pettersson scored for Sweden, who were outshot 36-26.

Canada beat Sweden 3-0 in preliminary play and defeated Finland 4-1 in the semi-final. Finland would win bronze Saturday, beating Czechia 3-1.