World Juniors Wrap-up

Team Canada wrapped up it’s third consecutive International Ice Hockey Federation U-20 World Junior Championship three weeks ago in Sweden and for MAINEiacs GM & Head Coach Clem Jodoin, an assitant coach for the Canadians and Lewiston team captain Marc-Andre Cliche, it’s mission complete. For Lewiston defenseman Michal Korenko, the experience of being in his second straight tournament for Slovakia is filled with great memories, despite finishing out of the medals.

Korenko had a solid tournament, scoring two goals. One on opening night of the round robin in a 4-2 loss to Germany, the other a few days later in a 2-1 loss against Switzerland. He also registered an assist in the tourney, giving him 3 points in the six games his countrymen played in.

“It was a good experience,” said the MAINEiacs defensman of his time in Sweden. “I was there last year, so I was kind of a veteran there.”

While Korenko was happy of his personal accomplishment, he was disappointed that his homeland team didn’t fair better in the event. “I scored a couple of goals, I thought that we we’re going to play better than eighth place.”

Slovakia would lose all four games in the round robin, finishing last in Pool A. The Slovaks only win would come at the expense of Belarus in the relagtion round, blowing them out 9-0.

For Cliche, it was quite an accomplishment to actually make the final cut out of Calgary. With the familiar names of top Quebec Leaguers Angelo Esposito (Quebec), Claude Giroux (Gatineau), Mathieu Perrault (Bathurst) amongst other top players from other leagues that were sent home, Cliche was placed in a role position. Third line, defensive forward, and first line penalty kill was Marc-Andre’s main duty throughout the tournament.

“He started out as the thirteenth player, ended up being the seventh forward,” Jodoin explains of Cliche’s final position on the team. “The more he was playing, the better he was.”

“It was an unbelievable experience,” said Cliche. “It was a high level of hockey over there, international hockey, a big surface of ice. Just the fact of traveling, it was the first time for me to go to Europe. It was pretty cool.”

Keep in mind that the Canadians had not won gold in the tournament on European soil since the 1997 tournament held in Geneva, Switzerland. Five times previous to this year, the Canadians would finish with two silvers (2002, 2004), two bronze (2000, 2001), and out of medals once (1998) when the series were held across the pond. After consecutive golds at Grand Forks, North Dakota in 2005 and in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2006, a three-peat in Leksand, Sweden was far from certainty, although Team Canada was a favorite entering the two week event.

For both Cliche and Jodoin, the trip to Sweden was hardly a vacation. With Team Canada, it is all business as the country demands gold in these events, and anything less than that marks disappointment, finger pointing and intense media scrutiny.

“It’s been a lot of work,” said Jodoin. “It’s a big business. When you go over there, you’re a little bit brainwashed. You’re on a mission. Team Canada has not (won gold) in the last ten years over there. So we had a challenge to prove that we could do it on the big ice surface. We had the challenge of doing it overseas. We had the challenge of (repeating).”

After crusing through the round robin with wins over host Sweden (2-0), USA (6-3), Germany (3-1) and Slovakia (3-0), Canada would rest and await a semi-final match up. Canada would ultimately face Team USA, as the Americans defeated Finland 6-3 and earned the right to take on the Canadians the following day.

In that game, Team USA would take the lead just over five minutes into the second period as American captain Taylor Chorney deflected in a power play goal to put the Canadians behind for the first time in the tournament. Team USA would hang onto the lead until Luc Bourdon flipped a knuckler in from the blueline to tie the game up with under eight minutes to go in the third period. Cliche had a scoring opportunity just as the third period buzzer sounded but to no avail. The two teams would battle through a 10 minute overtime and remain knotted at 1.

Then the shootout. With international competition, there is no limit on the number of times a player can repeat as a shooter, as long as it is only once in the three shooter rotation. Winnipeger Jonathan Toews would take three trips down the ice and score three times. The third time would be the game clincher.

“It was the most exciting game in my entire life,” mentioned Cliche of being in the moment. ”It’s been almost a month (since) and I can’t explain it still. There is no word to explain it against USA. It was sick.”

Team Canada would end up drawing familiar adversary Russia in the gold medal game, the same opponent the Canadians routed 5-0 in Vancouver for the top prize the year before. Much the same as in 2005, the Canadians would march out to a 4-0 lead, but would hang on as the Russians would try to claw their way back into the game, but fell short. The Canadians would hold on to win the gold 4-2.

“I am glad for Marc-Andre,” mentions Jodoin about his achieving gold. “Like I said (to him),’You’ll remember it for the rest of your life. You still don’t know the impact that you are going to get when go back to Canada, and when you go back to Rouyn-Noranda.”

What awaited Cliche in his hometown of Rouyn-Noranda after the tournament was 500 kids that came by to see him in a reception to congratulate him, to take a look at his medal, and dream that some day that they too would have to chance to win on the international stage.

Jodoin has nothing but high praise for the entire team that participated this year. “We have a very good team chemistry among the coaches, and among the hockey staff,” he said with an honest smile. “I saw some great kids focused. Very, very focused. They knew that they were (on) a mission. They knew that they had to obtain their goals. Very, very impressive.”

Plenty of material to post here this week. The Voice of the MAINEiacs Jeff Mannix will have a complete run-down of the Top Prospects game from last week in Quebec City. MAINEiacs owner Mark Just and GM Clem Jodoin talk about the trade period, and more as soon as I can get it on the screen.

News, questions, and comments appreciated. offthepost@lewistonhockey.com