2009 World Junior "A" Hockey Challenge

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Tuesday, October 20th 2009

2009 World Junior 'A' Hockey Challenge

JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE -- A high-calibre international hockey event in Summerside is now less than two weeks away.
Six teams from five countries will compete in the fourth World Junior 'A' Hockey Challenge at Credit Union Place from Nov. 1 to 8.
"One of the original concepts for all the countries was to use this as a development tool," said Paul Lake, chair of the Canadian Hockey League. "Those (players) that are on the fringe of a world junior team are getting tried here, and you'll see some of them graduate up to that program."
The world junior hockey championship has become a Christmas-time tradition in Canada.
"This is our world juniors," said City of Summerside event development officer JP Desrosiers. "From what I've gotten from (Hockey Canada president and CEO) Bob Nicholson and Central Scouting, is that we're going to see hockey here that we've never seen here before.
"There's been about 60 players drafted from this tournament into the NHL."

Announced as host
It was announced during Game 3 of the Maritime Junior 'A' Hockey League final series between the Summerside Western Capitals and Truro Bearcats on April 9 that the Prince County city was awarded the international event.
"Basically, we wanted to try and capitalize on the fact that Summerside has been known as the Mecca of junior 'A' (hockey) in the Maritimes," said Desrosiers. "At the end of the day, what's good for junior hockey in Summerside is good for junior hockey across Canada, so we wanted to share that."
A host committee, consisting of 30-plus members from all kinds of backgrounds and expertise, has been meeting regularly since June.
"It's been amazing to see the people in the city and different organizations pull together," said J Hammer, facilities supervisor at Credit Union Place. "We just did a tip-off-in-a-box (package), and that's for local businesses to get involved with the promotion of the event. They embraced it and we had 20-some boxes sold (in one night) and it was a tie-in with the Boys and Girls, and we're going to be sending over 200 kids to games."

Minor hockey
It was also announced recently that, through a "substantial" sponsorship from Cavendish Farms, that all 400-plus Summerside Area Minor Hockey Association players will receive a free tournament pass.
"Cavendish Farms was approached by Bruce Cameron, who is the president of (Summerside) minor hockey and works at Cavendish Farms, which is another neat thing about being from a small town," explained Desrosiers. "He heard we were looking for a sponsor to get all the minor hockey kids into the rink for nothing, and he took it upon himself to work with me to put a package together and sell it, and two days later we had an answer back from Cavendish Farms saying, 'Yes, we're in."

jpsports@journalpioneer.com

Snapshots

World Junior 'A' Hockey
Challenge snapshots:
When: Nov. 1 to 8.
Where: The state-of-the-art 3,612-seat Credit Union Place, which opened in March 2007.
Who: Six teams from five countries, comprised of players aged 19 and under, are divided up into two pools. Canada West, Sweden and Russia are in Pool 'A'. Canada East, Belarus and the United States comprise Pool 'B'.
Format: Teams will play a round robin. The first-place teams earn a bye to the semifinals, with the second- and third-place teams crossing over in the quarter-finals.
Medal games: The bronze-medal game is Sunday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m., with the gold-medal game at 5 p.m.
Television: The Sports Network (TSN) will televise the gold-medal game live in high definition.
Previous hosts: Yorkton, Sask. (2006), Trail and Nelson, B.C. (2007) and Camrose, Alta. (2008).