Andrew Mangiapane and Team Canada fall in semis and bronze medal games, finish Worlds in fourth place

Despite a strong showing during the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship tournament, Andrew Mangiapane and Team Canada lost their chance at a gold medal by Switzerland by a final score of 3-2 in the semi-final round on Saturday, with the win coming via the shootout. And after a fourth place finish, following the bronze medal game defeat to Sweden on Sunday, that ends the tournament for Mangiapane, who was one of two Calgary Flames to be brought into a team to participate (Martin Pospisil with Team Slovakia is the other).

After writing my last piece on Mangiapane and recognizing how good he has been with Team Canada, he cooled off over the final games of the tournament. He finished with six points in nine games, which means in the last two games (the elimination games) against Slovakia and Switzerland, he did not register a point despite playing some decent minutes, especially against Switzerland. He had the sixth-highest time on ice among Canadian forwards in their eventual loss. He did, however, register his sixth assist of the tournament against Sweden.

There were three players tied for fifth with Mangiapane’s final point total by the end of the Switzerland game, including two members of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel. The other player was Buffalo Sabres young defenseman Owen Power. But, after the assist in the defeat to Sweden, it’s just Mangiapane and Hagel that hold fifth place down for Team Canada with seven points in 10 games.

It was former NHLer Sven Andrighetto who ended Team Canada’s gold medal game bid with the shootout winner. Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist on the two power-play goals that put the Swiss in the lead. It also helped that the Swiss goalie, Leonardo Ginoni, made 42 of 44 saves in regulation and overtime after Team Canada rallied from 2-0 down. Mangiapane only had one shot on goal in the game, with the team-high being six from John Tavares, who had the tying goal late into regulation time, and St. Louis Blues defenceman Colton Parayko, who did not register a point in the game.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a banner showing for Mangiapane against Switzerland, but there are some positives to take away.

The good news for those out there is that overall, Mangiapane still had a very good tournament. He not only was a leader for a team full of young players (similar to his role with the Flames), but his performance through the first handful of contests was up with players like Tavares and Connor Bedard. Of course, any tournament play is a relatively tiny sample size compared to pretty much anything else, but there were certainly some positives to take away from the nine games he participated in with and against some of the best players in the NHL.

“You meet new guys, and to represent your country is always an honour,” Mangiapane said to CalgaryFlames.com. “Me wearing a letter, too, that helps my confidence and can propel me into next season a little bit here.”

The tournament is over for Team Canada and Mangiapane, and they won’t be coming home with new bling around their necks, but the off-season work won’t stop as there is plenty of preparation to do for next season. While general manager Craig Conroy and his scouts are preparing for the draft and there’s preparation going on for free agency as well, the players are all doing their respective work before the start of the 2024-25 season, which will be here before we know it. An unfortunate end to Team Canada’s tournament leads us to the official start of the off-season for every Flames player.