by Amy Johnson, Lead Correspondent, The AHL Report

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — In the second day of game action at the 2018 Sport Chek World Junior Showcase both split-squads for Canada and the US faced off in back-to-back games at Sandman Centre.

The first game featured Canada Blue against USA White in what was a fairly tame, evenly played game. Jake Wise and Sasha Chmelevski teamed up to open the scoring early for the Americans. Logan Hutsko followed suit later in the opening frame to make the score 2-0 for the US, but just 40 seconds later Canada got on the board with a goal by Barrett Hayton.

After a scoreless second period, during which Matthew Welsh relieved Olivier Rodrigue in Canada’s crease to split goaltending duties for the game, Cody Glass evened the score at 2-2 just a couple of minutes into the third period. Halfway through the final frame, however, Brady Tkachuk fed Chmelevski his second goal of the game to seal a 3-2 win for Team USA.

Immediately following that win, USA White faced off against Canada Red in a high-scoring, penalty-driven matchup that resulted in another victory for the Americans.

The two teams racked up two goals apiece in the first period: Ivan Lodnia and Jason Robertson for USA, and Noah Dobson and Ian Mitchell for Canada.

Joel Farabee then scored back-to-back goals right out of the gate in the middle frame, followed by a top-shelf wrister by Jack Drury to give the US a three-goal lead over Canada. Nick Suzuki got one of those goals back for Canada after his goaltenders (Matthew Villalta and Michael DiPietro) switched places to split this game as well.

Team Canada came back with a vengeance in the third period, with Antoine Morand scoring on the power play just 48 seconds into the period, followed by an even-strength goal from Isaac Ratcliffe. Brothers Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes combined to add to the USA tally before Oliver Wahlstrom‘s empty-netter finished off a 7-5 win for the US.

Lead Correspondent Amy Johnson had the opportunity to speak with Farabee and Jay O’Brien exclusively by phone immediately following the second game of the night. Both athletes are prospects drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers last month (14th and 19th overall, respectively). Listen to the full audio of both interviews below, where the players talk about their experience at the World Junior Showcase, what it’s like playing for their country, and how their time at Flyers Development Camp helped prepare them for this event.

Exclusive post-game interview with Jay O’Brien:

Exclusive post-game interview with Joel Farabee:

Special thanks to Hockey Canada for providing video highlights and post-game interview coverage of each game, which you can watch below:

Video highlights – CAN White (2) vs USA Blue (3):

Click HERE for CAN White vs USA Blue – July 31, 2018

Video highlights – CAN Red (5) vs USA White (7):

Click HERE for CAN Red vs USA White – July 31, 2018