Hawel & Struthers advance to semifinals at FISU Games

STFX X-Men Hockey forwards Liam Hawel and Matthew Struthers have wrapped up preliminary tournament action with Team Canada at the FISU World University Games in Lake Placid, NY.

The X-Men pair were selected as members of the U SPORTS all-star team for the Games and have finished tournament action with a perfect 5-0 record.

Both X-Men have nine points apiece and are in the top six in tournament scoring. Struthers, fifth overall, has four goals and five assists, and right behind him in sixth place, Hawel has two goals and seven assists.

The AUS all-stars opening up tournament action on Thursday, January 12^th with a 6-1 win over Ukraine. Hawel contributed three assists in the win and Struthers scored a breakaway goal and had one assist.

The Canadian squad then earned wins over Sweden (10-2) and Japan (8-2) last Friday and Sunday. Hawel potted two goals and had an assist in the Sweden game and added an assist in the Japan win. Struthers has one helper in each victory.

Team Canada continued to roll and shutout Latvia (9-0) on Tuesday and Czechia (4-0) on Wednesday. In the game against the Latvians, Struthers had four points (2G, 2A) and Hawel had a pair of assists.

X-Men Hockey alumnus Patrick Grandmaitre - current head coach of the Ottawa GeeGees - is an assistant coach with Team Canada at the Games. 

The red and white outscored their opponents 37-5 in the preliminary games and have advanced to the semifinals. They will face-off against Kazakhstan at 2:00 pm AST on Saturday, January 21^st. The winner will meet either USA or Japan in the gold medal game.

The gold medal game is slated for Sunday, January 22^nd at 6:00 pm AST. The semifinals and finals will be webcast live on TSN – click here.  

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