Colten Ellis faced 44 shots in the Spengler Cup semifinal against Straubing and finished the tournament with a .911 save percentage. He’s shown here making a save with defenceman Jonathan Aspirot looking on.
January 8, 2025
-by Bill Dunphy
Colten Ellis did what he does best as Team Canada’s goaltender at the Spengler Cup tournament in Davos, Switzerland – gave his team a chance to win.
Unfortunately, his best fell short of Team Canada winning a medal, despite an outstanding performance by Ellis, especially in their semifinal match against the Straubing (Germany) Tigers.
The six-team invitational tournament was held from Dec. 26-31. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. Canada and the host team Davos have each won the cup 16 times.
Team Canada is comprised of Canadians predominantly playing in Europe, as well as players from the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League. The other five teams are all club teams playing in Europe.
Ellis, a St. Louis Blues prospect who plays for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, is 8-4-2 with a 2.70 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. Before leaving for Davos, he was 6-0-2 in his last eight starts with a 2.59 GAA and .923 save percentage.
While Canada had three goaltenders on its roster, coach Gerard Gallant went with Ellis to start the tournament and wasn’t disappointed.
In the opening game of the group stage, Ellis turned aside 25 of the 27 shots he faced as Canada defeated Davos 6-2.
Gallant stayed with Ellis in game two, with Canada defeating Straubing 6-3. Shots were 28-20 in favour of Canada. All three of Straubing’s goals were scored on the powerplay, including one on a five-on-three.
Of note, the only other Cape Bretoner on the team, Glace Bay’s Logan Shaw, scored twice in the game.
Canada was the only team to win both of its group stage games and advanced directly to the semifinals. Straubing had to play a quarterfinal game against Dynamo Pardubice, beating the Czechia club 5-0 to advance to the semifinal against Canada on Monday, Dec. 30.
Straubing got the jump on Canada with a powerplay goal in the first period.
Canada tied it five minutes later and took a 2-1 lead with a powerplay goal in the second.
Straubing tied it before the period’s end, setting up a tense third period, made even more tense when Canada’s Curtis McKenzie took a four-minute high sticking penalty three minutes in.
And for the next four minutes, Ellis made save after save – 12 in total – prompting the TSN announcer to exclaim, “Ellis saves Canada!”
Ellis saw 18 shots in the third period alone, 44 in total, but it was the flukiest of shots that ended up beating him.
At 9:04. Straubing’s Joshua Samanski was breaking into the Canada zone and Ellis came out of the crease to cut the angle. Samanski’s shot deflected off a Canadian defender and the puck flipped 12 feet into the air only to fall into the net behind Ellis.
Straubing would go on to score an empty-net goal to win the game 4-2.
In an Oran interview after his return to Springfield, Ellis said it was a tough way to lose.
“It was the kind of play that when it happens, it sucks, but you don’t think of it in the moment. There was still 10 minutes left to play, and our team played really well, but we couldn’t get it back.”
Other than that, Ellis said he enjoyed his second international experience playing for Canada, having been to Russia in 2018 at the U18 World Hockey Championship.
“It was an amazing experience. Everybody was great as was the camaraderie among the team,” he said, adding it was cool to play every game.
“I didn’t find out I would be starting the first game until I got there. We won it, and it went from there.”
Ellis said it took a little adjustment to get used to the larger ice surface.
“Definitely, playing on the larger ice surface is a little different for everybody. Trigger points and angles are a little different, but we had a couple of practices to get used to it.”
Ellis had eight goals against in the three games, four of which were scored on powerplays. He finished the tournament with a .911 save percentage and a 2.68 goals-against average, second only to Davos goalie Luca Hollenstein’s 1.50 GAA in just two games played.
Davos goalie Zane McIntyre was named to the tournament all-star team despite finishing third behind Ellis with a 3.00 GAA and a .905 save percentage.
Even though the Thunderbirds are on break until Jan. 11, Ellis said there was no time to spend at home in River Denys.
“It was tough to leave at this time of the year and I wanted to get back with the guys. We have a good team here and even though we don’t play until next week, we don’t have much down time. We’ll get a day off and then its practice every day.”
Ellis thanked everyone who showed their support during his time in Switzerland, including those who made the trip, which included his dad Brian, uncle Wendell, his girl friend Hannah MacDonald, her dad Grant, her uncle Kevin, as well as some family friends.
