Joyous time of year to be in junior
Vancouver has plenty of history in the Christmastime world championship event
Milos Roman is off to Buffalo, N.Y., to suit up for Slovakia at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship, but he is the lone Vancouver Giant to get the call from his country. The honour of representing your country isn’t an annual affair for most junior players and the Giants have been fortunate enough to send several players to the WJC in the past. Here’s a look at how some Vancouver players — and coaches — have fared at the annual showcase:
Andrej Meszaros, Slovakia 2003-04, 2004-05
A Ring of Honour inductee as the rookie of the year and top defenceman in his first season with the Giants, in 2003-04 he had a goal and an assist at the WJC, but Slovakia fell 3-2 to the Russians in the fifthplace game. He made his senior team debut a few months later at the worlds, then returned to the juniors for the 2004-05 tournament as team captain. He had three goals and an assist, but Slovakia didn’t make the medal round.
Marek Schwarz, Slovakia 2004-05
Another member of the 2004-05 squad that finished sixth, Schwarz had three goals and one assist in six games and finished as the second-leading goal-scorer on the team.
Cody Franson, Canada 2006-07
Sometimes, you just gotta sing. Franson was a part of Canada’s 2007 gold medal-winning team in Sweden and standing on the blueline after the 4-2 final victory against Russia, he was more than happy to belt out O Canada.
“Usually I don’t sing the anthem, but that one I couldn’t help,” he said at the time.
He had entered the tournament as arguably the WHL’s best player, but struggled, recording just two assists and a neutral plus/minus.
Canada won its third straight gold that year, going undefeated en route to their first world championship on European ice in a decade, ending a slide that began when they beat the United States for gold in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997.
Kenndal McArdle, Canada 2006-07
McArdle was the 13th and final forward on the depth chart and saw limited ice time, but was still happy he could contribute.
“Coming into camp, I knew that I had to play a role to crack this team,” said McArdle. “It was something that I was happy to do. Now, with the end result, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. In the end, we all won gold.”
Michal Repik, Czech Republic 2006-07
It was a forgettable experience for Repik as he went pointless and saw his team eliminated in the quarter-finals by Sweden. He was set to make up for it in 2008 when the WJC was hosted in his home country, but just weeks before the tournament, he took a massive hit from Everett Silvertips defenceman Dane Crowley, a collision so violent it left him with a concussion and actually affected his sense of smell for years.
Mario Bliznak, Slovakia 2006-07
The good? He scored one of his team’s six goals in the tournament. The bad? They gave up 19, went 0-4 and didn’t make the medal round.
Jon Blum, USA 2007-08 and 2008-09
The popular defenceman — he won the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s top defenceman and the CHL defenceman of the year award in 2009 — is the franchise’s all-time assists leader. He doesn’t, however, have the WJC bragging rights.
In 2007-08, the U.S. went 4-0, but lost 4-1 in the semifinals and they finished fourth.
The next year, he captained the Yanks in Ottawa, scoring two goals and adding two assists in six games, but the U.S. once again finished outside the medals in fifth place.
Evander Kane, Canada, 2008-09
It was Canada’s time to shine on home ice. The Canucks won a record-tying fifth gold medal and set an attendance record of 453,282. Kane had two goals, four assists and was plus2, and helped down Blum’s previously undefeated American squad in the prelims.
David Musil, Czech Republic, 2011-12
The Czech’s tournament ended in a 2-1 overtime loss to eventual silver medallist Russia, which went on to beat Canada in the semis, making it the first time in 11 years the Red and White missed the final.
Musil’s tournament included a 5-0 loss to Brendan Gallagher and Canada in the preliminary round at Rexall Place in Edmonton.
“It was a tough loss,” he said at the time. “We started pretty good but we had to stick with it and keep getting shots on net. We ended up with quite a bit, but they weren’t high-quality chances. We let out a lot of bad shots, high-slot chances, and we didn’t do what we talked about.”
In five games at the tournament, Musil was scoreless but a team-best plus-5, logging major minutes against the opposition’s top lines. The Czechs finished fifth.
Marek Tvrdon, Slovakia, 2011-12
Tvrdon recorded three goals and one assist in six games, finishing as his team’s second-leading goal-scorer as the Slovaks made it to the final round, but were bounced 8-5 by Slovakia in the quarters.
Tvrdon’s last game came against Musil, who beat Slovakia 5-2 in the fifth/sixth-place game, with Tvrdon being held off the scoresheet.
Brendan Gallagher, Canada, 2011-12
With three goals and three assists, Gallagher holds the record for points by a Giant at the WJC, but Canada missed out on the final for the first time in more than a decade in his year.
In their 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia, Canada trailed 6-1 midway through the third period. Gallagher was part of an epic comeback, scoring a goal and two assists, but they couldn’t find the tying goal at the end.
Canada didn’t win gold, but beat Finland 4-0 for bronze, extending a medal streak to 14 years (five gold, six silver, three bronze).
Radovan Bondra, Slovakia 2015-16, 2016-17
Bondra had a single goal in five games for the bronze medal-winning Slovaks in 2016, but went scoreless the next season, going minus-4 as his team finished seventh. He was traded by the Giants to Prince George at the deadline, just a few weeks after the tournament.
Don Hay, Canada coach, 2011-12
In 1995, when he was coach of the Kamloops Blazers, Don Hay took one of the most dominant Canadian teams to the title. The Junior Dream Team — it was a lockout year, so all the top prospects were eligible to play — went 7-0 and clinched the gold medal before the final game even started.
“It was a different (tournament) format,” Hay told the Globe in 2012. “When Sweden lost (before playing Canada) we knew we’d won the gold.”
On home ice seven years later, it looked to be the same story. Hay — then the Giants’ coach — helmed a squad that went 4-0 in the prelims, outscoring their opponents 26-5, and downed those Damn Yankees 3-2 in their final round robin game.
But a wild 6-5 loss to the Russians in the semifinal meant Canada would miss the final for the first time in 11 years. A bronze was the team’s only solace, a 4-0 win over Finland.
Pat Quinn, Canada coach, 2008-09
It’s ironic that the best performance by a Giant at the WJC doesn’t go to a player, but the team’s former part-owner. Quinn coached the 2009 squad on home ice in Ottawa, taking on all the pressure that came with it.
With a team that included a rash of future NHL stars — P.J. Subban, Jordan Eberle and John Tavares were just a few — Canada kicked off the event with an 8-1 win over the Czech Republic. The Khazaks were the next victim, falling 15-0 while getting outshot 54-1.
Quinn did face some hurdles. A goaltending controversy dogged him before Dustin Tokarski got tabbed as the starter in the playoff round, and that’s where it got tough.
Canada trailed Russia 6-5 in the final minutes of their semifinal, but Eberle scored one of the most memorable goals in our country’s history, tying the game with just five seconds remaining.
Both he and Tavares scored in a shootout to push Canada through to the final, where they downed Sweden 5-1 to win their fifth consecutive gold.