Canada plays host to the 2018 Canada Coupe Wheelchair Rugby Tournament held at the Richmond Olympic Oval over the Father’s Day weekend.
They (Canada) opened with a pair of wins that sees them tied for first as they enter the afternoon match-up Friday taking on the U in the six country event taking place over the weekend.
Thursday saw Canada put in an exceptional effort rebounding back from a first half deficit of 27-26 at the half storming back managing to pull out the 26-18 victory.
For 52-45 win Canada were full credit for the victory going 4 for 4 on the power play in the match to improve to 1-0 in this year’s tournament.
Currently Canada have five rookies in the lineup for that includes coach Patrick Cote who is in his second year with the squad that saw him take them to a fourth place finish at the Paralympics in 2016 at the Rio Olympics.
Rookies on the squad are Anthony Letourneau, Braden Troutman, Shane Smith, Matt Debly in addition to Eric Rodrigues and all are getting playing time, but for the most part it’s the veterans playing most of the minutes.
The second game saw Canada play host to a tough Denmark squad who put up a good game that saw Canada hold a slim 37-33 lead at the half.
This match saw the home squad cheered on just over 300 school kids from Richmond’s James Edwards school.
Both teams played strong in the second half in what proved to be an intense match-up with both teams have several quality scoring opportunities.
The stretch run saw Canada play solid on defense to close out a 58-51 win moving them to 2-0 in the tournament standings.
Other games in the opening day saw the US improve to 2-0 as well with a narrow 3 point 54-51 win over Australia following a Friday night 55-39 win over Denmark.
The win moves them into a first place tie with Canada as the only three teams undefeated in the Canada Cup tournament.
The only other undefeated teams is Japan that pulled out a 67-66 O/T win over Australia that saw a game saving goal line stand with no time left on the clock stunning the number one ranked Aussies.
Australia fell to 0-2 to the US dropping a 54-51 decision as the Americans held off a late Aussie rally for the victory Saturday afternoon.
This improved them in the tournament play going undefeated along with Canada (2-0) this weekend in the overall standings.
Sweden dropped a 52-45 game to Canada as well as another close 50-47 loss to Denmark falling to 0-2 in the tournament.
Special Thanks to Manto for the great photos.
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For all the latest scores and updates you can to their For all the latest scores and updates visit to the https://www.canadacupwcrugby.com/event-info.
