At home in the spotlight, Bedard authors another big World Juniors moment

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN SportsCentre Reporter Mark Masters reports on the 2022 World Juniors from Edmonton. Team Canada did not practice on Tuesday. Team Switzerland skated at the Downtown Community Arena. Canada faces Switzerland in a quarterfinals matchup on Wednesday. 

Connor Bedard doesn't mind the spotlight. 

"It's good," the 17-year-old said. "If the media doesn't want to talk to me anymore then I'm not doing something right."

Bedard has been doing plenty of right things at the World Juniors. His latest awe-inducing moment came in the first period of Monday's win. Team Canada's top line got hemmed in their own end for more than a minute and the players appeared to be exhausted. But when Canada finally got the puck, Bedard was off to the races. 

"I saw he had a little break there," said centre Mason McTavish. "I just gave him the puck. I was pretty tired so I just headed right off."

"He looked pretty tired in the D-zone," winger Tyson Foerster said of Bedard, "and then he got that burst of speed."

And then muscle memory took over as Bedard wired a shot past Finnish goalie Leevi Merilainen.

"I didn't even see it," said linemate Brennan Othmann, who headed to the bench after McTavish got the puck. "I heard the ping and then I just looked up and he celly'd so I figured it was something special like always. His conditioning must be off the charts. The kid's something special."

"I couldn't believe he went down there and sniped that," said defenceman Olen Zellweger, "but, you know, it's Connor so, yeah. What a shot."

Bedard downplayed the fatigue factor. 

"I wasn't too tired," he insisted. "We were kind of standing still for a bit there in our own end."

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Bedard's night started with a bang, but ended