U.S. Advances to Para Hockey Cup Championship With 13-2 Victory Over China

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — Brett Bolton (Rockledge, Fla.) and Declan Farmer (Tampa, Fla.) each tallied a hat trick to lift the U.S. to a 13-2 win over China here today in the semifinals of the 2025 Para Hockey Cup at Ovintiv Events Centre.

With the win, the U.S. advances to the championship game, set for tomorrow at 6 p.m. local time/8 p.m. ET, against the winner of tonight’s semifinals matchup between Canada and Czechia. For a full U.S. schedule, streaming info, and more, click here.

“We sure broke loose today, especially in that second period. We thought that maybe this was as relaxed as we’ve been heading into a game here,” said David Hoff (Bottineau, N.D.), head coach of the U.S. National Sled Team. “We mixed the lines up a little bit, and hopefully we’re on the right track heading into tomorrow and have one more good one.”

Jack Wallace (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) opened the scoring 1:44 into the contest when he scored on a far-side shot from the bottom of the right circle off a helper from Farmer.

Bolton batted home a loose puck in traffic right outside the China crease to double the U.S. lead at 9:08.

Just 12 seconds into the 2nd period, Evan Nichols (Haymarket, Va.) forced a turnover at the blue line and sent a pass to Farmer to create a breakaway opportunity, and Farmer scored with a short-side wrister over the glove of China netminder Wei Wang.

At the 4:15 mark of the middle stanza, Farmer sent the puck across the slot to Bolton on a two-on-one chance, and Bolton slid the puck past Wang for his second tally of the contest.

Yifeng Shen got China on the scoresheet at 5:03 to make it a 4-1 game.

Wallace scored a power-play goal for his second of the contest at the 9:03 mark to kick off a flurry of goals for the U.S. in the middle stanza.

In the following minute of play, Travis Dodson (Deming, N.M.) capitalized on a shot from the slot off a cross-ice feed from Josh Misiewicz (La Grange, Ill.), and Malik Jones (Aurora, Colo.) lasered the puck past Wang from the slot to put Team USA up 7-1.

Bolton completed a hat trick at 10:30, scoring from the top of the circles with a top-shelf snipe. Just 29 seconds later, Ben Musselman (Amelia, Ohio) notched a goal at 11:06 to make it a 9-1 contest.

Dodson notched his second of the contest at 11:38, and Brody Roybal (Northlake, Ill.) added to the tally 18 seconds later to make it a 11-1 game at the conclusion of two periods.

Early in the third period, Farmer rifled one home to put the U.S. up 11 goals.

After Shen scored a power play goal for China midway through the final frame, Farmer tucked the puck past Wang from the doorstep to score what proved to be the final goal of the contest, bringing the score to 13-2 and complete a hat trick.

Griffin LaMarre (Haverhill, Mass.) stopped 18 shots to earn the win in goal for Team USA.

NOTES: Brett Bolton was named U.S. Player of the game … Team USA outshot China 25-20… The U.S. was 2-5 on the power play, while China was 1-4.

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