Canada Wins First World Junior Canada Day Match-Up in History

Photos Robert John Boucher

In the second game of the night, the home side celebrated early and often en route to a 23-4 Canada Day win over Australia. 

The Canadians came out of the gates looking like a team determined to make amends for a sketchy performance in their tournament-opening loss to the US. Unfortunately for the Australians, they were standing in the say when Canada made that happen. 

[PHOTO: Australia's Anthony Green breaks up the floor in Game 5.]

Mason Myers scored the first of his eventual 5 goals just 30 seconds into the game. Cody Merritt ripped one home 31 seconds after that. Austin Sheen went back-to-back on Canada's next two possessions, then Dustin Morden scored off the ensuing faceoff. Just like that, it was 5-0. 

Canada kept the pressure on at both ends of the floor for the rest of the first quarter. Their defence made it difficult for the Aussies to get shots on goaltender Colton Ferguson while the offence poured it on to the tune of an 11-1 lead after 15 minutes. 

Thanks to Luke Spivey and Lucas Deshon, Australia fared much better in the second. Spivey scored twice and Deshon settled down in net, making boatloads of saves including some sensational ones as the teams tied the second quarter 2-2. 

[PHOTO: 2025 WJLC Australia and Canada group photo after round-robin game.]

Canada returned to dominating the rest of the way, with a 4-0 third and 6-1 fourth quarter. Myers added 6 assists for a total of 11 points. Sheen had 4 goals and an assist, Merritt and Neely each added hat tricks. Spivey responded with a hat trick for Australia. 

[PHOTO: Players of the Game - Australia Luke Spivey (left) and Canada Sam Neely (right).]

The highlight of the night, and one of the best goals you'll ever see, was Neely's one-handed, behind the back snipe that you can see by following this link to the game on YouTube (click); it's all cued up for you to see Neely's moment of magic. 

The final game of round robin play will be a rematch of last year's gold medal game, as well as a preview of this year's first semifinal. Canada and Scotland, both 1-1, will play at 8:00 PM ET Wednesday night, with a rematch in their semi at 5:00 PM ET on Thursday.