Matthew Wood among Canada's point leaders at World Juniors

Matthew Wood’s time at the World Juniors tournament with Team Canada is over. On Tuesday, Czechia pulled off a 3-2 upset victory over Canada in the quarterfinals courtesy of a game-winning goal with 11.7 seconds remaining.

Wood opened the scoring for his side in the second period when he went top-shelf on a breakaway.

Overall, Wood finished the tournament with two goals and two assists. His four points were tied for third-most on Canada behind only BU’s Macklin Celebrini (eight points) and Brayden Yager (five points). Matt Poitras — who plays with the NHL’s Boston Bruins — Carson Rehkopf, and Denton Mateychuk also had four points.

Wood’s total is even more impressive considering he played just 41:18 across the five games, third-fewest on the squad. He did have 11 shots on goal, second-most behind only Celebrini (21) and Fraser Minten (13).

Wood started the tournament as a winger on the fourth line (next to Celebrini) but struggled in that contest and only played 6:02. He was dropped to the extra skater after that, but had his best statistical performance against Latvia. In 10:21 of ice time, Wood piled up a goal and two assists despite reportedly being under the weather.

Canada’s early exit will benefit UConn this weekend in more ways than one. Wood may play against UMass depending on his travel schedule, and the Minutemen will also be without their top goaltender, Michael Hrabal, who plays for Czechia. He’s started 12 of 18 games for UMass but will now be missing their matchup with UConn.

UMass’s backup, Cole Brady, has a 3.08 goals against average and .884 save percentage compared to Hrabal’s 2.67 GAA and .905 save percentage.

Whether Wood plays in Amherst on Friday, the Huskies expect his time at World Juniors will pay dividends in the long run.

“All the kids I've coached that have gone through it, they come back better players,” Cavanaugh said of World Juniors. “It's like playing on a big stage. You'll learn how to play stressful hockey, so to speak. I think he's going to be so much better off, not only as a player this year but going forward in the future.”