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No gold for Nelson's Kinrade this year

Team Canada was eliminated from the Spengler Cup on Monday after a 6-5 semi-final loss to HC Geneve-Servette.
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There will be no gold medal for Nelson's Geoff Kinrade this year. Team Canada was eliminated from the Spengler Cup on Monday.

Nelson’s Geoff Kinrade will have to settle for the experience of playing in an international tournament this time around.

There is no gold medal in the local hockey player’s future this year, as Team Canada lost 6-5 to HC Geneve-Servette in semi-final play at the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

Canada played well during the contest, but Geneve-Servette goaltender Tobias Stephan was even better, stopping 50 shots to preserve the win for his squad.

Alexandre Giroux, Travis Roche, Jacob Micflikier, Darren Haydar and Jason Williams scored for Canada. Kinrade had one assist in the loss. Kinrade finished the tournament with three assists in four games played.

Last year, Kinrade was a member of the Canadian team that won gold at the Spengler cup.

The speedy  28-year-old defencman has been playing for Bern of the Swiss A League, one of the top leagues in Europe which features many former NHL stars, young North American prospects and top-level European talent. Kinrade is a former Nelson Minor Hockey standout and Nelson Junior Leafs defenceman. He led the Leafs in scoring as a 16-year-old rookie.

After two seasons with the Leafs, Kinrade made the jump to Junior A where he played two seasons with the BCHL’s Cowichan Valley Capitals.

The 2013 Spengler Cup featured six teams, Canada’s National Men’s Team, HC Vitkovice Steel (Czech Republic) and HC Davos (Switzerland), the host team, playing in the Cattini Group, and CSKA Moscow (Russia), HC Genève-Servette (Switzerland) and the Rochester Americans (AHL) playing in the Torriani Group.

HC Geneve-Servette eventually won the gold at the Spengler, defeating Moscow 5-3 in Tuesday’s final.