Cochranite Dillon Dubé and his Canadian teammates are preparing for the medal round at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) U-20 World Junior Hockey Championships in Buffalo NY., which began on Jan. 2 with the quarterfinals.
The tournament has gone well so far for Dubé and his Team Canada teammates, which started opened up on Dec. 26; a game Canada beat Finland by a score of 4-2. The team followed up that game with a 6-0 wins over Slovakia, a 4-3 shootout loss to the United States in the tournament’s first ever-outdoor game that took place at New Era Field on Dec. 29. The team then closed out the preliminary round the following night with an 8-0 victory over winless Denmark to give them a record of 3-0-1. Canada finished first in-group A and played Switzerland in the quarterfinals, a team that finished fourth in the other group with a record of 1-3.
Dubé, who was named Canada’s captain before the tournament began, has a goal and an assist in four games. The local product was happy with how his team has played so far, even after a loss to their rivals south of the border.
“Yeah it was tough, but coach (Dominque) Ducharme said the tournament’s isn’t won during this game (against the Americans) and we’re fine, just have to move forward into the rest of the tournament,” Dubé said in an interview with TSN’s Tessa Bonhomme.
“It adds more fuel to the fire now that everybody on the team has that feeling (of losing) but overall right now we’re fine, we’re good and we’re in a good spot right now.”
The Canadians ended up taking out the Swiss by a score of 8-2. After jumping out to an early three goal lead in the first period after goals from Brett Howden, Calgary born Cale Makar and Drake Batherson, who scored his first of two on the evening. Jordan Kyrou, Connor Timmins and Maxime Comtois also scored for Canada. Dubé scored his second goal of the tournament late in the game on the power play and was dangerous all night with the many scoring chances he and his linemates produced over the course of the game … Canada also outshot Switzerland 60-15 in the game. The win advances Canada to the semi-final on Jan. 4 against the Czech Republic, who defeated Finland 4-3 in a shootout in their quarterfinal game. Canada defeated the Czech Republic 9-0 in their first pre-tournament game on Dec. 22, but Dubé says he expects a different and much better Czech team come the semi-finals.
“Yeah obviously a lot has changed since the pre-tournament game against them. They’ve been playing really well and it should be an easy game to get up for,” Dubé said post game.
“It’s a one game elimination, so we’ve got to give it everything we have. I think it’ll be easy for all the guys to get up for, everybody is excited and we’re playing another good team so that’s even more motivation.”
Puck drop for Canada’s game against the Czech Republic will go at 8 pm Eastern time, meaning it will at 6 pm Central time.
