Working The Corners

By Kelly Sharp

Hockey Canada will need some obvious tinkering before the next World Junior A Hockey Challenge. Lopsided results were the norm as the two Canadian select teams dominated younger aged European teams in the week long tournament in Saskatchewan. Canada West and Canada East breezed past the juniors from across the Atlantic. Including a pair of semi-final games, the Canadian teams outscored Europe 37-8.

The Canadian rosters were top heavy with 18 and 19 year-olds while the four European teams had no players older than 17 years of age.

Canada West jumped into a 4-0 lead and hung on for a 4-3 victory over Canada East in the tournament final. Smithers Ryan de Vries returned to the Prince George Spruce Kings with a gold medal. Darcy Rota, a Prince George Sports Hall of Fame inductee, was director of hockey operations for Canada West.

Stew Malgunas, the only Prince George minor hockey product to capture a gold medal at the World Junior Hockey championships, has joined his very first junior team as a volunteer assistant coach with the Spruce Kings. Malgunas was into his fourth season as an assistant with the Prince George Cougars when the proverbial coaching change cost Malgunas and Mike Vandecamp their major junior jobs.

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