Brett Connolly has the chance to bring world junior gold home to Prince George.
Connolly, a P.G. minor hockey product and captain of the Prince George Cougars, helped Canada to a dominating 4-1 win against the United States Monday night in Buffalo. The game was a semifinal contest at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship and sent Canada on to Wednesday's gold-medal final against Russia.
"It was pretty cool," Connolly said of Monday's victory, which unfolded in front of a loud and proud pro-Canadian crowd. "It didn't really feel like (the win) was on their turf with the fans that we had. We just wanted to stick to our game plan. We thought it was going to be a close game but fortunately we got up by a few goals. It was a good win."
Canada led 2-0 after the first period and then scored the only goal of the second. Another Canadian marker early in the third put the game on ice, but the U.S. did finally get on the board later in the final frame.
Connolly, a first-timer at the world juniors, beautifully set up linemate Quinton Howden for Canada's second goal. On the play, Connolly flew down right wing, into the U.S. zone, and fed Howden a perfect saucer pass, which Howden re-directed past American goaltender Jack Campbell.
"We had a three-on-two and Howden was driving the net very well and I just saw him go to the net there," Connolly said. "He had a step on the D so I just put it over to him and he made a good play to put it in. It was a good job by him for driving the net and kudos to him, he put it in and got us another goal."
TSN, national broadcaster of the tournament, later picked the play as its highlight of the night.
Connolly, the first-round pick (sixth overall) of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2010 NHL entry draft, has been skating on a line with Howden and Sean Couturier for the last couple games and the trio has been consistently effective.
"It's been going really well," said the 18-year-old Connolly. "We know what we need to do. We know our role. We need to grind their d-men down physically and play a very hard game -- stops and starts and simple. We've been playing very good the last two games and we're looking to build on that come the Russia game."
Ah, yes, Russia. Connolly now gets to live out a Canadian hockey player's dream -- playing the Russians for a world championship.
"It's a rivalry and the guys are looking forward to it," he said. "For me, I can't wait to get out there in two days. It's going to be fun."
In its tournament-opener, Canada was tied 3-3 with Russia after two periods but scored three times in the third for a 6-3 victory. Connolly said he doesn't think that win gives Canada any kind of advantage heading into the game for gold.
"We're a different team than we were at the start of the tournament," he said. "We just have to stick to the game plan and come out and play strong. Russia isn't going to fold and give us the game -- we've got to come out and earn it and play well."
Most of the Russian players were part of a club that was on Prince George ice on Nov. 18. That night, at CN Centre, Team Russia beat Team WHL 5-2 and wrapped up its first-ever series win in the CHL Subway Super Series. Connolly was one of the WHL shooters who solved the Russian goaltending.
In his career, Connolly already has one gold medal as a member of Team Canada. In the summer of 2009, he was part of a Canadian squad that won the Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament in the Czech Republic.
In the final, the Canadians thrashed the Russians 9-2.
"Obviously the world juniors is a way bigger deal than the Under-18s and if we can (win gold) it will be quite the experience," Connolly said.
Connolly could become the first member of the Cougars to win world junior gold. Guys who had the chance in the past and came up short include Eric Brewer, Tyler Bouck, Blair Betts and Dan Hamhuis. Dana Tyrell, Connolly's linemate when Connolly was in his rookie WHL season, made the 2008-09 version of Team Canada but suffered a knee injury in a pre-tournament game and wasn't able to play for a team that eventually claimed gold in Ottawa.
