Canada's wheelchair rugby team will be taking momentum to London for the upcoming Paralympic Games after an impressive showing at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
The fifth seeded host team reached the championship game of the eight country Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament before dropping an entertaining 56-53 decision to the top ranked United States in front of a near capacity crowd on Saturday afternoon.
With Richmond's own Ian Chan having a leading role, the Canadians traded goals and hits with the rival Americans for the first half of the game which was tied at 24-24 at the break. Midway through the third quarter, the hosts racked up several penalties that resulted in turnovers and quickly found themselves behind by as much as six points.
During the fourth quarter, a spark was lit by Fabien Lavoie, whose tough defense resulted in several steals, and 18-year-old rookie Zak Madell, whose energy provided a much-needed boost. Canada brought the game to within two, but ultimately they couldn't close the gap to secure the win.
After the game, Head Coach Kevin Orr praised his team's efforts.
"This tournament allowed us to test a lot of different line-ups to prepare for the Paralympics," he said. "Some of those lineups worked, and some of them didn't, but the good news is that there's still three months to the Paralympics and we've shown a lot of progress."
Canada and the USA have a long-standing rivalry, which was caught on camera in the 2005 Academy Award-nominated documentary "Murderball." Until Japan beat the Americans at this tournament, Canada was the only team to have ever won against them at a sanctioned tournament.
Canada slipped past Belgium (53-52), then Japan (57-54) in the semi-finals to play for gold. The next stop for all eight teams competing is the London 2012 Paralympics. Orr says that his team will be ready.
"For the past two years, we've had our eyes on gold in London," he said. "This week has proven that with a few adjustments, we can get there."
