Canada’s under-20 men’s hockey team got to know adversity intimately over the past year-and-a-half.
The trials and tribulations paid off Saturday night as the team won gold at the world junior hockey championship in Edmonton.
After going up 2-0 midway through the second period, the group saw Finland roar back to tie the game 2-2 in the third and force overtime where a highlight-reel save by captain Mason McTavish turned into a championship-winning goal by Kent Johnson at the other end of the ice.
“It’s almost a year-and-a-half since our first training camp so for all of that hard work to have kind of paid off, it’s just so special,” McTavish said, gold medal draped around his neck.
The team initially came together in the summer of 2021, with the original tournament set to be played in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., that December.
Rising COVID-19 cases among players and officials caused the forfeiture of games and the event was halted after just four days.
The International Ice Hockey Federation promised to replay the tournament, but the only available time was in August — a period where young hockey players are often gearing up for training camps.
In the meantime, Canadian hockey came under fire as sexual assault allegations emerged against players of two former world junior teams. Hockey Canada faced intense scrutiny for how it handled the allegations, with the federal government freezing the organization’s funding and big-name sponsors pulling their support.
Several players opted not to take part in the summer tournament, creating big turnover on the Canadian squad, but the group persevered, said head coach Dave Cameron.
“This is a tough enough tournament to win when it’s a normal tournament at Christmas time,” he said. “And for this group to come in here under the cloud that they came in under, with what was going on with Hockey Canada, and the turnover, we had seven or eight guys that didn’t come.
“Just the commitment. ? This group just stuck with it. That kind of was a theme.”
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