Benjamin Gaudreau is getting used to beating the Russians on May 6.
Back in 2018, while playing for the East Coast Selects the North Bay area netminder led his team to an Under-15 tournament victory at an international event in Philadelphia.
Well, fast forward to May 6 of 2021, and this time the Sarnia Sting goalie and top NHL goalie prospect for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft was doing it again to the Russians, as he was named the game star for Team Canada as the national team defeated Russia 5-3 in the final of the 2021 IIHF Under-18 World Hockey Championships tonight in Texas.
See related: Golden experience for local goalie at International U15 event
The former North Bay AAA Trappers goalie, playing in his third straight start for the Canadians, turned away 31 saves to help Canada win U-18 gold for the first time since 2013.
Canada was a perfect 7 and 0 in the round-robin and playoffs with Gaudreau going 5-0 for the Red and White.
The outcome left one local hockey dad feeling pretty special. Although he certainly would have loved to be in Texas on this night.
"It has been a very special tournament," Robert Gaudreau, Ben's dad, told BayToday post-game.
"Watching him and the others that haven’t played a competitive game in over a year was incredible. They have all ground away for over a year and it showed at this tournament. Proud of them all. Maybe a little extra proud of Ben."
But this was not an easy win for the Canadians and Gaudreau.
In fact, it was the Russians who got on the board first as tournament scoring leader Matvei Michkov picked up a loose puck off a skate of a Canadian defender and beat Gaudreau to give the Russians a 1-0 on the fourth shot he faced.
However, Gaudreau, who was named the tourney's top goaltender, made a key point-blank save to keep it 1-0 less than a minute after.
After Canada recorded the equalizer from Connor Bedard, the Russians beat Gaudreau again with less than two minutes left in the opening frame as Dmitri Buchelnikov beat him through a screen.
Shane Wright got things square at 2-2 with a late tally in the final minute of the first.
Six minutes into the middle frame the Corbeil product came up with an amazing diving stop off a rebound when he appeared down and out he got a glove on a shot while sprawled out in his crease and eventually was able to cover the puck.
Logan Stankoven and Brennan Othmann scored second period goals to give Canada a big 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Gaudreau made some key stops again and was beat only one more time on this night, this one on a third-period power-play goal by Vladimir Grudinin to pull the Russians within a goal at 4-3; a goal that Gaudreau appeared interfered with but no call was made.
The Canadians iced it with an empty-net goal by Kingston Frontenacs star Shane Wright in the final minute to make it 5-3.
For a goalie who had not played a game in a year; Gaudreau certainly performed admirably.
"He has been outstanding, he was calm and cool in five games for Team Canada," stated TSN analyst Craig Button about Gaudreau's play in the tournament.
The last North Bay area goaltender to win gold at a high-profile international tournament was Colton Point, who won gold with Team Canada at the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships which took place in Buffalo, New York that holiday season.
Ironically at Chippewa Secondary where Point shared his gold medal with North Bay fans in the summer of 2018, a young lad named Ben Gaudreau was one of the first visitors to see Colton's gold.
Now Benjamin has IIHF Gold of his own.
