OTTAWA — Canada couldn’t make a New Year’s Eve comeback against the United States, losing 4-1 despite once again getting a strong performance from goaltender Carter George. It’s clear that if Canada has any chance to win this world juniors it will be because of their netminder.
A question goalie coaches have been asking for decades is how can you shut down all the noise in a goaltender’s head?
For 18-year-old Carter George, the answer is to turn up the volume.
In a thunderous Canadian Tire Centre, in the biggest game of George’s career, his mind wasn’t on the noise of the crowd but the sound of music. George sings a song in his head to zone out the pressure, calm himself and focus on the task at hand.
“It distracts my mind,” said George. “I’m an overthinker. When I overthink stuff, I tend to kind of freeze up, and I overdo a lot of things on ice. When I’m singing, I just go out there and am in a flow. I like to sing my song, relax and just let my instincts take over.”
George was Canada’s best player again on New Year’s Eve. After two shutouts to begin the tournament, the L.A. Kings prospect gave his team a chance to win against the U.S., stopping 24 of 27 shots. George now has a .964 save percentage and 1.01 goals against average in these world juniors. In a game marked by multiple undisciplined penalties, George allowed three power-play goals but couldn’t be faulted on any of them and prevented many more.
Canadian coach Dave Cameron acknowledged the huge problem Canada has, taking 52 minutes of penalties in four games, including 22 penalty minutes against the U.S.
“They have to decide,” Cameron said about undisciplined play. “It’s an individual thing, it’s a character thing.”
However, George was steady in goal, killing off most of the penalties and calm throughout. Early in the first period, George spun over his back to grab the puck out of mid-air after it ricocheted off the boards looking cooler than a December night in Kanata.
Cole Hutson eventually beat George on the power play to open the scoring 1-0, and celebrated making a shush motion to the crowd.
But George shut out all the outside noise, steadying himself in the second period stopping all 13 shots. In George’s journey to becoming Canada’s No. 1 netminder, a big element has been his mental game. He began singing to himself during games after working with mental coach Peter Fry last year. His mother Tara George, a former professional curler, recommended that her son seek out Fry, believing he could improve George’s game.
“If you make a mistake, it costs your team a goal, right?” said George. “I think the mental aspect is huge for goalies to work on it.”
George rotates his song of choice for each game, typically finding songs on TikTok.
“When I sing, it’s usually the chorus over and over again,” George told Sportsnet.ca.
“And for me when a breakaway or chance breaks out. I go right back to the start of the song and start singing it right away. Sometimes I’ll sing it out loud to make sure I’m singing it. Because if I’m not, then I’ll be like a left-handed shot. What is he going to do? These are the shooter’s options, and I’ll start thinking like that. I know I have to sing to let it all come naturally.”
In the second period, when the U.S. had three power plays, George lived up to the mantra that your goaltender must be your best penalty killer. He made multiple saves in tight on Boston College’s trio of Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and James Hagens, as Canada was scrambling but their netminder wasn’t.
George’s teammates should be singing his praises.
If Canada wants to rebound to win the tournament and potentially enact revenge on the U.S., their pathway will be through George’s elite play and staying out of the box. It’s their best hope for a team that scored 10 goals in four games and has averaged more than 10 penalty minutes per game.
George wasn’t fazed by allowing the one early goal.
“That’s probably the most important thing being in the game mentally at all times,” said George.
It is mental but also starts with the belief in himself.
“Going into every game, I have the confidence that I’m the best goalie in the world,” George told Sportsnet.ca.
But George acknowledged how the penalties affected the team’s inability to create chances to catch up in the game.
“It’s hard to keep momentum when you’re on the kill all the time,” said George after the U.S. game.
George is part of a wave of goaltenders who aren’t mammoths in the crease. Juuse Saros and Dustin Wolf have been thriving in the NHL and are around six feet tall like George. George’s backup on Team Canada, Jack Ivankovic, who will be a top pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, is five-foot-11.
George believes there is a reason for shorter goalies’ recent successes.
“The speed of the play is getting quicker, players are getting smarter and more receptive with it,” said George. “You got to be a lot smarter and quicker on your feet and be a little bit more reactive. And I think smaller goalies have a little bit more ability to be quicker than that, and not saying anything against bigger guys but I’m biased on this.”
In the third period, Canada tied the game 1-1 on their own power play thanks to a Bradly Nadeau snipe. But Canada went back to the box immediately with a slew of penalties that George eventually couldn’t fend off. Danny Nelson’s perfect shot in the slot to the top corner put the U.S. ahead for good.
Minutes later, Easton Cowan took an incredibly poor boarding penalty at the end of a shift, and on the ensuing power play, Cole Eiserman launched a rocket from the low hash marks past George, who had no chance, to give the U.S. a 3-1 lead. Meanwhile, credit to George’s American counterpart, Trey Augustine, who was stellar stopping 38 of 39 shots.
Goalies can only prevent goals, they can’t score, eh?
Canada has consistently struggled to find scoring. In a baffling decision coach Cameron played Gavin McKenna, Berkly Catton and Luca Pinelli for fewer than 14 minutes each even though they combined for nine shots, which was as much as any other line. The line was also limited in ice time due to the number of Canadian penalties. Canada won’t win many games in this tournament if they don’t play their best players more and continue to struggle to score.
The undisciplined play included two bad penalties from Carson Rehkopf, Cowan’s frustrating shove for a boarding call and Pinelli’s unnecessary elbowing penalty in the final minutes with the game at 3-1.
Simply put, staying out of the box should be priority No. 1 for Canada and will need to be addressed ahead of the rematch of last year’s quarterfinal against Czechia. Last year, Canada lost in the dying seconds off an unlucky shot that redirected off Oliver Bonk. So far, Canada hasn’t created their own luck.
At least they don’t have to worry about giving up poor goals with George in the crease. It’ll be music to Canadian fans’ ears if George can carry this team to the gold medal in Ottawa. George relished the moment and fans in spite of the loss.
“It was lots of fun. I mean, they’re great. I enjoyed it,” said George.
George is the reason to believe a gold medal is still possible. On Thursday when Canadian fans’ hearts are racing and everything is on the line, they should know to keep calm, Carter’s on.
