Chile scores two late goals to get by Canada at Junior Men’s Pan Ams

A late surge by Chile resulted in Canada’s Under-21 men being handed their second loss of the 2016 Junior Men’s Pan American Championship Saturday in Toronto.

Goals in the 64th and 68th minutes, largely against the run of play, secured the victory for the Chileans, who join Mexico at the top of Pool B. Each team has two wins and six points after two days of competition. Canada remains winless and pointless in the tournament after one-goal losses in both of its first two matches.

“In order to win you need to play 70 minutes of hockey, you can’t play 55 minutes,” says Canadian goalkeeper Iqwinder Gill, who started Canada’s first game against Mexico and played the first half against Chile. “The biggest thing is play consistent hockey and we should be fine.”

It looked as though the Canadians would be just fine on Saturday, as Canada was the team in control for the better part of the match.

After a slow start for both teams, the Canadians picked up the game’s first good scoring chance in the 12th minute when Brandon Pereira hammered a hard sweep into the circle and it was deflected on goal by Kabir Aujla, but Chilean goalkeeper Agustin Araya made the save.

Canada had another chance five minutes later when Thomson Harris flipped a ball over a defender’s stick and fired a shot on goal from the baseline. His attempt was also stopped.

The Canadians kept coming waves throughout the first half and in the 19th and 23rd minutes had their best chances to score, both off the stick of Amrit Sidhu.

First, Sidhu showed off his stick-handling skills by going through three Chilean defenders and putting a backhand on goal. It was turned aside. Then, Sidhu was all alone in front and fed a pass but his first-time shot went over the goal.

After Gill made two saves – one a diving effort on Chile’s first penalty corner near the end of the first half – the teams went into the half-time break scoreless.

The second half was slow to start, but in the 41st minute, Canada picked up its first corner of the game.

Brandon Pereira, who scored on a dragflick Friday against Mexico, took the ball and tried to replicate his effort from the previous night. His attempt was stopped, but the ball popped up and standing at the doorstep was Aujla, who batted it out of the air and into the net for the game’s first goal.

After Nicolas Renz hit the post on a Chilean penalty corner in the 64th minute, it looked as though Canada was on its way to victory and the three points. But only moments later, a strange play resulted in the tying goal.

From outside the circle, Juan Amoroso played a bouncing ball into the Canadian area and it ended up in the Canadian goal. The ball was slightly redirected by Nicolas Bravo before going in and the game was tied. Goalkeeper Cameron Bonney – who came into the game at the start of the second half – was slow to react, looking like he didn’t pick up the deflection.

To add insult to injury, only four minutes later in the 68th minute, Canada was outnumbered in front of its own goal and Jose Hurtado put the ball by Bonney after a cross-goal pass to put Chile ahead 2-1.

Much like its first game against Mexico, Canada would rue not converting on its early opportunities as time would run out and Canada suffered its second loss in as many games.

Canada now has a day off before facing Guyana on Monday at 2:30pm PT/5:30pm ET. Guyana is also winless and both teams will be looking to pick up the three points and finish in third in Pool B, to avoid playing the top seed in Pool A in the quarterfinal.

Monday’s match can be watched live online here.