Southwestern Ontario area Paralympians bringing home medals

Tyler McGregor of Canada chases the puck during their para ice hockey finals match against United States at the 2022 Winter Paralympics, Sunday, March 13, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Canada may have lost 5-0 to their rival Americans in the 2022 Paralympic Sledge Hockey final, but area Paralympians are bringing home some hardware.

Team Captain Tyler McGregor of Forest,Ont. and Assistant Captain James Dunn of Wallacetown, Ont. are coming home with silver medals for the second straight Paralympic Games.

"It is always difficult to lose in a gold-medal game," said Canadian captain Tyler McGregor, the team's top scorer in the tournament with five goals and three assists.

"After everything our team has been through over the past four years, and especially over the past two years, we never stopped believing in each other. I could not be more proud of every player in our locker room, as well as our entire staff, for the work we have put in to get to this point. It is tough to fall short of a Paralympic gold medal, but we need to hold our heads high and be proud of the way we competed and represented Canada."

Dunn, who is only 21 years old, now has a pair of silver medals, after being the youngest player in Hockey Canada history to be named to Team Canada’s Paralympic squad back in 2018.

Canada has won a Para-hockey medal in six of the last eight Games, including silver in a 2-1 loss in overtime in 2018, and gold in 2006.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on Canadian athletes, due to travel restrictions and facility closures. The Para-hockey team had just a half dozen exhibition games this season before arriving in Beijing. In previous Games, they would have had 25 to 30 under their belt.

Mark Ideson of London was part of bronze medal wheelchair curling team.