Saturday, January 13, 2018
Canadian Juniors Win Gold-Again!!
It
is never a boring sight to see young Canadian players waltzing around
at centre ice, hugging each other and anyone else who gets in their
way after winning the World Junior Championship. Last Friday night,
the scene occurred for the 17th time. It still warmed the hearts of
many Canadians.
It
was the fourth time that the Canadians had beaten the Swedes in a
final. It was an important game for the Swedes as well. After the
game, the Swedish team was presented with their silver medals. One
player, Lias Andersson, was so miffed at losing that he tossed his
medal into the crowd. To me, it was a symbolic gesture. After the
game, he solidified the point. He had won silver medals previously.
They did not mean a lot to him.
As
is the case with all of the teams at the tournament, players do not
come hoping to win silver medals. Last year, the Americans beat the
Canadians in a shootout. That was not the greatest feeling in the
world for the young Canucks. Perhaps many of those players thought
about tossing their medals. Andersson’s medal was returned to him
after the presentations. Someday he may hoist the Stanley Cup with
the Rangers. That would be special.
Tyler
Steenbergen deflected a shot by Conor Timmins with less than two
minutes remaining in the third period to lift the Canadians to
victory. It was a special goal for him, as he had limited ice time
during the tournament. It was his first goal in the tourney, and, up
to that time, he was the only forward on the Canadian team who had
not scored.
Dillon
Dube had opened the scoring for the Canadians in the first period. Up
to that point, the Swedes had never trailed in the tournament. They
tied the game on a short-handed goal by Tim Soderlund. The Canadians
knew beforehand that the Swedes were dangerous when killing
penalties. They had scored twice on one penalty kill against the
Americans in the semifinal. A notable feat.
The
Canadian players, well coached by Dominique Ducharme, return to their
Junior teams from the Canadian Hockey League, others to their
university teams. Cale Makar left an impression with a lot of us
after his play in the Royal Bank tournament last year in Cobourg. He
was certainly one of the best players there. He was selected as one
of the best defencemen at the World Juniors. He is rather short for a
rear guard, but has the great skating skills to compensate. He will
now continue his studies at the University of Massachusetts.
It
was very noticeable that speed is a very important component in
today’s game. Ducharme was also impressed with the skills that the
Canadian kids demonstrated at the tryouts. The Canadians also had
seven players returning from last year’s silver medal team. Many of
the others, like Makar, had also participated in countless
championships in their young hockey careers.
John
Druce coached the Cobourg Cougars to the Royal Bank Cup Championship
last year. He is now behind the bench of the Wellington Dukes. Up to
this point in the season, the Dukes have been enjoying an excellent
year; however, team brass decided it was time for a change. An
overtime win on Friday night may have been a step in the right
direction.
Now,
if he could convince Makar to come to Wellington after his freshman
year at U. Mass.
# posted by James Hurst @ 10:17 AM 
