Much like Ryder Ritchie, Roger McQueen has an exceptional shot and he found success with it to the tune of two goals. He showed little hesitation on the puck and when he received it in a shooting area he immediately turned it towards goal and let it rip. His shots were accurate and powerful and he opened the scoring with a great shot through traffic that displayed nice and early just how he can beat you. He was a key distributor on the powerplay as well, working alongside Hodnett and Mews, he kept the puck moving along and forced the defense to continually shift allowing him to get into pockets of space to set up shop. He played well in his own zone and was physical and stayed tight to his man, did a good job keeping his man from receiving the puck and keeping him handcuffed. It was a solid and well-rounded performance from McQueen, but he especially excelled given the ample amount of powerplay time that Canada White saw.

Ryder Ritchie has an excellent shot and he showed just how dangerous he can be with the puck on his stick in this one. Ritchie is a sharpshooter through and through, with a wicked release and pinpoint accuracy and he was able to rip a pair of goals past the Finnish goalie. He showed great patience on the puck in a 2 on 1 situation to force the defender to choose whether to give up the pass or the shot, and once the green light was given for him to take the shot he fired away. His second goal was a quick snap after gathering the puck from Marques’ feed from the slot and quickly firing it over the goalie as he stretched to make a last ditch effort. Ritchie’s shooting was fantastic and he may come away feeling he could have added another goal or two to his tally, but he still performed very well.

There are so many little flashes of Calum Ritchie in Ryder’s game that I actually had to check to see if they were brothers (they don’t even play in the same league funny enough). The size and length isn’t there but the ability to maximize the effectiveness of his reach is, and when that’s combined with smart positioning and a great two-way game then the comparison to the Oshawa General doesn’t seem entirely outlandish. Take Ritchie’s goal, where he and Testa both rob a Czech defender of the puck before Ryder immediately gains control and takes the offensive zone. His arcing route as he attacked the net forced the two Czech defenders to lose their positional cohesion, leaving a wide open lane for Testa and Ritchie to pass back and forth through which ultimately led to a goal.

His skating stride begins with short crossovers but he certainly can operate at high speeds. He is fantastic in motion; reading where pressure is coming from and able to dart in and out using lateral motions. They aren’t the biggest strides or cuts but they show enough quickness and agility that he can find separation space. I also found he could carve and shift his weight in all directions while moving with the puck. If you match that with drag moves back and forth and fakes in tight spaces, he can score off the rush or move pucks in a hurry to teammates. His processing speed matches the speed of his hands and simply looks to make dynamic plays before opponents can touch him. I think he could have finished off even more plays had he had a bit of puck luck. You could tell he was the most determined player on the ice for most of his shifts.

An overall strong game from Ritchie. Despite his smaller frame he gets in hard on the forecheck and creates turnovers. Does really nice work along the walls and is regularly able to get the seam to create scoring opportunities. Consistently got to the quiet areas of the ice where teammates would find him for scoring opportunities which he often buried. Really good touch around the net helping him finish this game with three goals.