CANMORE – Local hockey prospect Finn McLaughlin added another piece of hardware to his collection when he helped Team USA take silver at the 2022 Five Nations Cup in Colorado.
In the tournament, which ran from Aug. 9 to 13, McLaughlin, who was drafted by the Saskatoon Blades in the Western Hockey League (WHL) Prospects Draft, picked up a goal and two assists.
“I thought I played really good,” McLaughlin said. “In the final game, I had a goal and assist to help get our comeback going.”
In the gold medal game, Team USA lost to Team Czechia 6-4 after Czechia scored an empty net goal to seal the game and the gold.
While this is not the first big tournament for McLaughlin, who won silver at the 2021 WHL Cup, it was his first taste of international play.
“This was my first international tournament. It was incredible. You grow up watching the World Juniors and you see the USA playing all these different teams and getting the opportunity to play against them is really great,” McLaughlin said. “It was awesome to play against these different countries and talk to some of the different players after the game. That was a great experience.”
Team USA won its first game on Aug. 9, 10-1 over Germany, followed by a 5-2 win over Switzerland the next day. The team then picked up another win, this time 8-2 over Slovakia on Aug. 12, to move on to the gold medal game against Team Czechia.
“Our goal was to win gold, but we are very proud of how we represented the country,” McLaughlin said. “All the guys had a great tournament, learned a lot and had a great experience from it.”
Team USA head coach Dan Jablonic said the team competed well throughout the tournament and he was excited for the future of hockey for the United States.
“We had high expectations of what we wanted to accomplish,” said Jablonic. “I thought we got a good start, but they matched it. We had our identity back by the third period and our players battled as hard as they possibly could. Today, Czech was the better team, and we respect that, but I'm extremely proud of the way our players represented the red, white and blue. It's disappointing for everybody, but in the big picture, USA Hockey's future is very bright with these 20 young men representing our country and I'm extremely proud of them.”
Playing in the tournament also helped McLaughlin gain more confidence in his hockey ability.
“There is a confidence side to it. Having confidence playing for these teams, especially Team USA,” McLaughlin said. “It gives you confidence and lets you know how your abilities are and leads into getting better and developing more.”
McLaughlin hopes to suit up for Team USA again, something he says is a great honour, but until that point he has memories of the tournament that will last a lifetime.
“After our wins, standing on the blue line and hearing the national anthem, it was a great moment for that,” McLaughlin said. “After you go through a good game, and you play with a lot of great teammates and looking up at the flag is a surreal moment.”
Until the next international tournament for McLaughlin, he will be concentrating on preparing for the upcoming season with the Canmore Eagles.
“With Canmore, we have a great team coming in,” McLaughlin said. “Hopefully we can go deep in the playoffs and win a championship. I am super excited.”
