By admin 
OTTAWA – Canada could not stage a comeback against the United States on New Year’s Eve, losing 4-1 despite another strong performance from goaltender Carter George. Clearly, if Canada has any chance of winning this world juniors, it will be because of their netminder.
A question goalkeeper coaches have been asking for decades: How can you tune out all the noise in a goaltender’s head?
For 18-year-old Carter George, the solution is to turn up the volume.
In a thundering Canadian Tire Centre, during the biggest game of George’s career, his thoughts were not on the noise of the crowd, but on the sound of the music. George sings a song in his head to take the pressure off, calm himself and focus on the task at hand.
“It takes my mind off things,” George said. “I’m an overthinker. When I think about things, I tend to freeze up, and I exaggerate a lot of things on ice. When I’m singing, I just go out and I’m in a flow. I like to sing my song, relax and let my instincts take over.”
George was Canada’s best player again on New Year’s Eve. After two shutouts to start the tournament, the LA Kings prospect gave his team a chance to win against the USA, stopping 24 of 27 shots. George now has a 0.964 save percentage and 1.01 goals against average among these world juniors. In a match marked by multiple undisciplined penalties, George allowed three power play goals but could not be faulted for any of them and prevented many more.
Canadian coach Dave Cameron recognized the huge problem Canada has and took 52 penalty minutes in four games, including 22 penalty minutes against the US.
“They have to decide,” Cameron said of undisciplined play. “It’s an individual thing, it’s a character thing.”
However, George was steady in goal, killing most of the penalties and remaining calm. Early in the first period, George turned over his back to grab the puck out of the air after it ricocheted off the boards, looking cooler than a December night in Kanata.
Cole Hutson finally beat George on the power play to open the scoring 1-0, and celebrated by making a silent gesture to the crowd.
But George shut out all outside noise and steadied himself in the second period, stopping all 13 shots. In George’s journey to becoming Canada’s No. 1 netminder, his mental game was a big element. He started singing to himself at competitions 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?” George said. “I think the mental aspect is huge for goalkeepers to work on.”
George rotates his favorite song for each game, usually finding songs on TikTok.
“When I sing, it’s usually the chorus over and over again,” George told Sportsnet.ca.
“And for me when an escape or opportunity breaks out. I immediately go back to the beginning of the song and immediately start singing it. Sometimes I sing it out loud just to make sure I sing it. Because if I’m not, then I’m a left-handed shooter. What is he going to do? These are the shooter’s options, and this is how I’m going to think. I know I have to sing to make it all happen naturally.”
In the second period, when the US had three power plays, George lived up to the mantra that your goaltender must be your best penalty killer. He made multiple saves on Boston College’s trio of Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and James Hagens as Canada was struggling but their netminder was not.
George’s teammates should be singing his praises.
If Canada wants to rebound to win the tournament and possibly get revenge on the US, their route will be through George’s elite play and staying off the beaten path. It’s their best hope for a team that has scored 10 goals in four games and averages more than 10 penalty minutes per game.
George was unimpressed with the one early goal.
“That’s probably the most important thing to always be mentally in the game,” George said.
It is mental but also starts with belief in oneself.
“Every game I feel confident that I am the best goalkeeper in the world,” George told Sportsnet.ca.
But George acknowledged how the penalties affected the team’s inability to create chances to catch up.
“It’s hard to keep the momentum going when you’re chasing all the time,” George said after the US match.
George is part of a wave of goaltenders who aren’t mammoths in the crease. Juuse Saros and Dustin Wolf are thriving in the NHL and, like George, stand about 6-foot-4. 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 the recent successes of shorter goalkeepers.
“The speed of the game is getting faster, players are getting smarter and more responsive,” George said. “You have to be a lot smarter and quicker on your feet and a little bit more reactive. And I think smaller goalies have a little more ability to be faster than that, and I’m not saying anything against bigger guys, but I’m biased in this.
In the third period, Canada tied the game at 1-1 on its own thanks to a Bradly Nadeau snipe. But Canada immediately went back to the box with a slew of penalties that George ultimately couldn’t parry. Danny Nelson’s perfect shot into the top corner put the US ahead for good.
Minutes later, Easton Cowan was given an incredibly bad 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 US a 3-. 1 pipe. Meanwhile, credit goes to George’s American counterpart, Trey Augustine, who did an excellent job of stopping 38 of 39 shots.
Goalkeepers can only prevent goals, they can’t score, right?
Canada has consistently struggled to score. In a baffling decision, coach Cameron played Gavin McKenna, Berkly Catton and Luca Pinelli for less than fourteen minutes each, even though they combined for nine shots, which was as many 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 it stops playing its best players and continues to struggle to score.
The undisciplined play included two poor penalties from Carson Rehkopf, Cowan’s frustrating push for a boarding call and Pinelli’s unnecessary elbow penalty in the final minutes when the game was tied at 3-1.
Simply put, staying off the beaten path should be Canada’s No. 1 priority and addressed ahead of last year’s quarterfinal rematch against the Czech Republic. Last year, Canada lost in the final seconds on an unfortunate shot that deflected off Oliver Bonk. So far, Canada has not created its own luck.
At least they don’t have to worry about giving up bad goals with George in the crease. It will be music to the ears of Canadian fans if George can take this team to the gold medal in Ottawa. George enjoyed the moment and the fans despite the loss.
“It was a lot 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 the Canadian fans’ hearts are racing and everything is on the line, they must know how to stay calm: It’s Carter’s turn.