TORONTO – With one last chance to impress head coach Clarke Singer (Western Ontario) and his staff, in order to make the 2011 WU team, 21 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) men’s hockey players suited up to take on a selection of players battling for a spot on the Canadian word junior team. Two last period goals were not enough as the WU hopefuls fell 6-2 at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto.
Goal scorers for the WU team were Charles-Antoine Messier (Concordia) and Maxime Langelier-Parent (McGill).
Goal scorers for Team Canada were Riley Sheahan, Cody Eakin, Ryan Murray, Marcus Foligno, Curtis Hamilton and Carter Aston.
Team Canada rotated all four of their goalies in both nets with Olivier Roy and Calvin Packard backstopping the WU team while JP Anderson and Mark Visentin were put between the pipes for Canada.
The teams looked evenly matched through the first period. A defensive battle ensued before Canada’s Sheahan got past Roy for the first goal of the game after 12 minutes of play.
The second period was all in favour of the red, as Canada got on the board again after 53 seconds. Beginning to build confidence, the national team hopefuls struck again to take a 3-0 lead.
After two more Canada goals, Concordia’s Messier connected with Aaron Snow (Western Ontario), and Keaton Turkiewicz (Western Ontario) midway through the third for the first WU team goal. Canada got one last score from Ashton, but the WU team would answer with their second scored by McGill’s Langelier-Parent.
The third-period scoring surge would not be enough for the WU team as lost 6-2 to Team Canada.
The Canadian squad for the upcoming Winter Universiade – which will run from January 23 to February 6 in Erzurum, Turkey – will be made up of OUA all-stars. Final cuts are expected following tonight’s game and the official Universiade roster is set to be announced on Friday.
Canada has enjoyed tremendous success in men’s hockey at recent Universiades including a silver-medal finish at the last Games in 2009 when the team was made up of Canada West skaters and a World University Games title in 2007 when Canada was represented by players from Atlantic University Sport (AUS).
GAME NOTES: While all junior teams have played throughout the month of December, this was the first game for the OUA players since the first semester ended on Dec. 4… Two OUA goals were called back by the officials (one in each of the first two periods)…
Video Highlights courtesy of TSN at: http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip389577#clip389577
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