Garrett Meurs of the Plymouth Whalers scored a pair of second period goals that paced Ontario to a 5-2 win over Team West at the World Under-17 Challenge in Timmins on Saturday.
Team West opened the scoring midway through the first period before Ben Thomson of the Kitchener Rangers replied for Ontario to tie the game before the end of the first period.
Meurs added a pair of goals five minutes apart in the second period and Ryan Murphy of the Kitchener Rangers also scored in the second to put Ontario ahead for good.
"It's a big win," Meurs said. "I've been playing hard and trying to do whatever I can and I just got lucky. I threw two pucks on net and they went in. We play tomorrow now in the semi-finals and it's a great feeling."
Ryan Strome of the Barrie Colts rounded out the scoring with a short-handed effort late in the third period. Stuart Percy of the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors added a pair of assists in the win.
"We had to be resilient," said Ontario coach Jake Grimes of the Belleville Bulls. "I thought the West threw a really good game at us and I thought we had to fight through."
Tyson Teichmann of the Belleville Bulls made 15 saves, including nine in the third period as Ontario outshot the West 36-17.
Ontario (3-1-0) is looking for its third straight Under-17 championship and will play in the semi-finals on Sunday against Russia (3-1-0). The U.S.A. (4-0-0) and Sweden (3-1-0) meet in the other semi-final.
Ontario has won three straight games after a surprising loss to Finland in the opening game of the tournament.
"Going down early in that first game might have helped us a little bit," Grimes said. "We've been playing for our lives since that game. I think that our guys are going to look more at it like now we're going for the gold instead of trying to stay alive. I think we'll play better."
By Aaron Bell
