Taking the Maple Leaf global

It's been a short summer for Dillon Dub é.

The 17-year-old Cochranite played his last game May 31 in the Memorial Cup final at Quebec City, giving the Kelowna Rockets forward just enough time to shave his playoff beard, sharpen his skates and tape his stick for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup hockey tournament in the Czech Republic.

Following week-long Hockey Canada tryouts ended Aug. 4 at Calgary's WinSport Winter Sport Institute, Dub é was named to Team Canada's under-18-year-old (U18) squad headed to the Hlinka Memorial in Bratislava and Breclav. Team Canada opens Aug. 10 against host Czech Republic.

“It's an honour to represent Canada, ” said an elated Dube following an Aug. 5 Team Canada U18 practice at WinSport's Markin MacPhail Centre.

“I'm pretty excited about it. I can't wait to get on the plane. ”

Following practice, the team was bound for a flight to Frankfurt and then Vienna before bussing from the Austrian capital to the Czech Republic.

“The camp definitely helped a lot. All the stuff we did, all the nutrition they talked to us about and all the warming up; the stretching and everything we've been doing has helped a lot. ”

Following the comprehensive training camp, Dub é was one of 22 selected from the 43 elite Canadian players (four goalies, 15 defencemen, 24 forwards) auditioning for Hockey Canada's U18 program. The Cochrane Minor Hockey product was in Hockey Canada's U17 development stream last season.

“He's a very smart player. He's a very good skater, ” said Team Canada U18 head coach Stan Butler of Dub é. “He reads the game well. He plays well at both ends of the ice.

“Obviously, the other intangible is he comes from an extremely good, winning program in Kelowna. ”

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound forward is coming off a rookie Western Hockey League season in which his Kelowna Rockets launched to the league championship before making the Canadian Hockey League's Memorial Cup final and losing the final 2-1 in overtime to the Ontario Hockey League's Oshawa Generals.

Dub é logged 45 regular-season games (17 goals, 10 assists) and 24 playoff tilts (5 goals, 7 assists) in his first season of major-junior hockey in Kelowna.

Fellow Hockey Canada U18 camp attendees were eager to hear about his Memorial Cup experience.

“They all wonder what it's like, ” Dub é said. “When I was younger, the Mem Cup was the tournament to watch because you always want to play in the Western League.

“They ask me lots of questions. It's good. They mostly ask me about the guys on my team and how tight we were. They are all like brothers to me and that's why we went so far. ”

Now it's on to the international stage with Team Canada at the Hlinka Memorial. It's Dub é's first taste of elite international hockey.

“If we play the way we should, we should be fine. I want to go to this tournament and definitely want to win it. ”