Maybe it’s time to demand the return of the ECHL and the Salmon Kings.
It was the difference between men and boys Friday afternoon at The Q Centre as the U Sports Canadian university all-stars, former major-junior players who have filled out and are at AHL/ECHL pro level, defeated Canada’s world junior championship hopefuls and future NHLers 5-1 in the rubber match of their three-game series.
“It’s not about the wins and losses. It’s about the evaluation,” said Canadian head coach Tim Hunter.
It didn’t hurt the U Sports cause to have Vancouver Canucks prospect and projected starting Canadian junior goaltender Michael DiPietro on loan in the crease and blocking 32 of 33 shots.
Ian Scott of the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders, who Friday signed an entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and DiPietro were officially anointed Canada’s goaltenders Friday as Matthew Villalta was cut.
Also cut were forward Liam Foudy, Isaac Ratcliffe, Raphael Lavoie and Ty Dellandrea, and defencemen Cam Crotty, Calen Addison, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Nicolas Beaudin.
Combined with the devastating news forward Alex Formenton will miss the world juniors, 23 players remain in camp with one more cut to make. Formenton, who began this season with nine games in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators, injured his leg in the first game Wednesday against the U Sports all-stars at The Q Centre. He was one of only two returnees from the 2018 Canadian gold-medallist team in camp.
The Canadian team will now train at Naden ahead of pre-world tournament exhibition games Wednesday against Switzerland and next Friday against Slovakia, both at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“Nerve-wracking,” is how forward MacKenzie Entwistle, an Arizona Coyotes prospect from the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, described the wait Friday for the cuts to be made.
Hunter is tasked with getting the national side ready for the 2019 world juniors, beginning Boxing Day in Victoria and Vancouver, and he wanted the older U Sports all-stars to challenge his young charges.
The university players did more than that in winning 5-1 and 5-3 after Canada’s opening-game 3-2 victory in a shootout. The U-Sports team also swept the two-game series against the eventual gold-medallist Canadian juniors last December ahead of the 2018 world junior championship in Buffalo, New York.
“They [U Sports] are crafty, smart, older players and they did their part,” said Hunter.
They certainly separated the men from the boys this week — even boys headed to the NHL.
“That was obviously a tough one against older and stronger players,” said Canadian defenceman Ty Smith of the Spokane Chiefs, the first WHL player taken in the 2018 NHL draft, 17th overall by the New Jersey Devils.
Owen Tippett of the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL, selected 10th overall in the first round of the 2017 NHL draft by the Florida Panthers, scored Canada’s lone goal. Former OHLer Kris Bennett of the University of New Brunswick scored twice for U Sports.
“It was not the result we wanted, but all in all, I feel good,” said Entwistle.
Canadian forward and first-round Philadelphia Flyers draft pick Morgan Frost, from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL, said despite the loss: “It was our best game of the three as a team.”
