Once again this year, the best junior hockey players in the world will be on display at the World Junior Hockey Championships and therefore once again, so will the top stars from the Canadian Hockey League.
The final roster for Canada’s National Junior Team was announced recently and of the 22 players on the team, 21 of them are Canadian Hockey League players. The breakdown of Team Canada: 10 players are from the Western Hockey League, nine players are from the Ontario Hockey League, two players are from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and there is one player from the U.S. college ranks.
The World Junior Hockey Championship will be held from Dec. 25, 2001 to January 4, 2002 in the Czech Republic. Numerous other CHL import players are also participating in the event on teams from other countries.
All of Team Canada’s games from the World Junior Hockey Championship will be broadcast live on TSN. Team Canada plays two exhibition games, Dec. 20 (against Liberec, a Czech Republic Division 1 team) and on Dec. 22 (against Finland), before opening the World Junior Hockey Championship tournament Christmas Day against France.
You can also follow the exploits of Team Canada at www.canadianhockey.ca, which will contain up to date information on the WJHC throughout the event.
WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
There are three games in the WHL Friday night. Prince George (3) plays in Vancouver, Kelowna is at Saskatoon and Portland visits Tri-City.
There were no games in the WHL Thursday night. In the final game before the Christmas break Saturday, Tri-City is at Portland.
ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE
There are four games in the OHL Friday night, the last night of play until after the Christmas break. Mississauga plays in Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie (7) is at Kitchener, Sarnia travels to London and Ottawa plays at Oshawa.
On Thursday night in the OHL, Toronto St. Michael’s doubled Oshawa 4-2, Kingston beat Peterborough 6-5, London stopped Windsor 3-1, Owen Sound defeated Barrie 3-1 and Sault Ste. Marie doubled Brampton 4-2.
At Toronto, Ryan Rorabeck scored the game-winning goal at 18:04 of the second period to lift the Majors. Scott Heffernan had three assists for Toronto, while Jon Hedberg added two assists for the Generals. At Peterborough, Ed Van Herpt made 43 saves in goal to lead Kingston. Justin McCutcheon scored the game-winning goal at 15:01 of the third period, with Andrew Ianiero adding one goal and two assists. Greg Chambers scored his 24th goal of the season for the Petes, while Jason Penner had three assists.
At Windsor, Mike Stathopulos had one goal and one assist for the Knights while David Bowman scored the lone Windsor goal. Chris Houle made 25 saves in the London goal. At Barrie, Kyle McAllister scored twice for Owen Sound, while Michael Jacobsen added a pair of assists. Joey Tenute had the lone goal for Barrie on Justin Day, who made 29 saves.
At Brampton, Jeff Carter scored twice to lead the Soo to its win. Brock McGillis made 23 saves in goal for the Greyhounds, who out-shot Brampton 41-25.
QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE There are seven games in the QMJHL on Friday night. Cape Breton is at Montreal, Halifax (8) travels to Hull, Acadie-Bathurst (1) plays in Quebec, Baie-Comeau visits Rimouski, Sherbrooke is at Drummondville, Moncton plays at Rouyn-Noranda and Chicoutimi is in Shawinigan (4).
On Saturday, the final day before the QMJHL’s Christmas break, Halifax (8) is at Sherbrooke and Shawinigan (4) plays at Victoriaville.
On Thursday night in the QMJHL, Val-d’Or defeated Moncton 7-4 and Victoriaville doubled up on Chicoutimi 6-3.
At Val-d’Or, David Cloutier, Jonathan Charette, Eric Fortier and Seneque Hyacinthe all had one goal and one assist to lead the Foreurs, while Michel Dube had a pair of goals for the Wildcats. At Victoriaville, Matthew Lombardi had three goals and two assists for the Tigres, while Mathieu Brunelle added one goal and three assists. Jean-Francois Nogues made 33 saves for the winners, while Francis Lemieux had two goals for the losers.
For complete QMJHL summaries, statistics and standings, visit the official QMJHL website.
