NAGANO, Japan — Canada, led by Summerside native Billy Bridges, earned a silver medal at the 2011 Japan Para ice sledge hockey championship after a 1-0 loss to Norway in its final round-robin game Monday night.
Canada finished the tournament with a 2-1 record, including wins over the United States (2-1) and Japan (5-0).
The silver medal is the first in three appearances for Canada at the tournament — it won gold in 2008 and 2009.
Monday, Canada received 15 saves from goaltender Benoit St-Amand of St-Hubert, Que., but couldn’t avoid being shut out for the first time since Oct. 31, 2009 — a span of 20 games.
Norway outshot the Canadians 16-13.
Bridges finished as Canada’s top scorer in the tournament, with four goals and one assist.
Kevin Rempel of Dundas, Ont., with one goal and one assist, and Marc Dorion of Bourget, Ont., who had two assists, were the only other Canadians to record more than one point.
Saturday and Sunday’s round-robin games were pushed back one day following the earthquake that struck Japan on Friday, and the decision was made to award the gold medal to the team with the best record following the round robin.
