U.S. blanks Canada for gold at IPC World Sled Hockey Championship

By Nick ZaccardiMay 3, 2015, 6:19 PM EDT
Sled Hockey
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The U.S. scored all its goals in the third period to beat Canada 3-0 in the IPC World Sled Hockey Championship gold-medal game in Buffalo, N.Y., the Americans’ first World title on home ice.

Declan Farmer and Dan McCoy scored within 4 minutes, 18 seconds, of each other midway through the final period. Josh Pauls added an empty-netter with 22 seconds left.

Farmer, 17, potted his sixth goal of the tournament with 12:02 to go, on a Brody Roybal assist, tying the record for a U.S. player at a single Worlds with Taylor Lipsett. Farmer was born a bilateral amputee, one above the knee and one below the knee.

McCoy, 21, scored for the first time at Worlds, with Adam Page and Joshua Misiewicz assisting. McCoy was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

REPLAY: Watch the U.S.-Canada gold-medal game in its entirety

Roybal also assisted on Pauls’ insurance goal.

Steve Cash recorded the shutout, just as he did in the Sochi Paralympic final against host Russia. Cash saved eight.

“This felt like a dream,” Cash said, according to the International Paralympic Committee. “Obviously, in Sochi, we worked really hard to win gold there, and I feel like this year we’ve been working even harder as a unit. To do this in front of our home fans and in front of a lot of people who have never even been exposed to sledge hockey before, it gives me a feeling of pride and speaks volumes to where the sport has come and how much it has grown.”

Canada had beaten the U.S. 1-0 in the 2013 World Championship gold-medal game. The U.S. has now won three of the last four World Championships.

The Americans outscored their five opponents in Buffalo by a combined 29-1.

Video: Sled hockey helps Josh Sweeney in his recovery