Dube, Ingram foes again after being teammates for Canada
The Okanagan Sunday
Dillon Dube and Connor Ingram are back to being fierce rivals in the Western Hockey League.
However, they will forever be bonded by their time together — as teammates for Canada over the last few weeks — and the silver medals that they have to show for their efforts at the World Junior Championship in Montreal and Toronto.
The sting of losing Thursday’s gold-medal game in a shootout, to the arch-rival Americans, was still very evident in their voices prior to facing off in a B.C. Division battle at Prospera Place on Saturday night.
“Overall, it was a fun experience,” said Dube, a forward for the Kelowna Rockets who contributed three assists over seven games for Canada and finished with a plus-6 rating, tied for third best on the team.
“You’re never really satisfied at the time,” Dube continued, “but now that I’ve come back and I realize all the support from fans all across the country. Every person has something good to say about what we did out there, so you can kind of look at that and be proud of everything that we did.
“It was awesome to get that far, and we really earned every game in that tournament,” added Dube, who is one nine players eligible to represent Canada again at the 2018 event in Buffalo. “I’m already looking forward to next year, and hopefully to win it on their soil.”
Ingram, the Kamloops Blazers’ standout goaltender who had an up-and-down showing for Canada, won’t get that opportunity. He’ll be too old to return and will likely be playing professionally in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization next season.
Despite getting pulled in the early stages of Canada’s semifinal win over Sweden — after allowing two goals on three shots in that 5-2 victory — Ingram was still able to hold his head high in taking away fond memories from the tournament as a whole.
“At the end of the day, some days the bounces are going to go your way and for one day, for me, they didn’t,” Ingram said. “It’s probably something that most of the country will remember me for, but it happens sometimes . . . .
“It’s just hockey, and the sun came up the next day and I’m still alive, so it could be worse.”
Now, Dube will try to translate that success into another long playoff run with Kelowna, which missed him for most of the first half due to a knee injury. Dube had only played 10 WHL games prior to jumping right back into the lineup and scoring Kelowna’s only goal in Friday’s 3-1 loss at Kamloops in the opener of their weekend home-and-home set.
“I need to play that hard all the time without the puck,” Dube said, “and now, with the puck, I need to go back to the skilled play, but if I can hunt down pucks and almost play a grind type of game without the puck, that will be the biggest thing — and just to play fast.”
Ingram backed up Dylan Ferguson for both games against the Rockets, with the Blazers giving their go-to guy some extra time to recuperate before riding him down the stretch.
Kelowna and Kamloops could be on a collision course for a playoff rematch, with Ingram’s heroics forcing a seventh-and-deciding game in last year’s first-round series, which saw Tomas Soustal score the overtime winner for the Rockets.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. It’s probably the best division in junior hockey right now, so it’s exciting and it’s a lot of fun to be a part of,” said Ingram, who was anxious to get back between the pipes and rebound from the way the world juniors ended for him.