November 29 is a day Brett Connolly, Ryan Howse and Charles Inglis will be marking on their calendars.
That's the day Hockey Canada releases its list of invited players for tryouts for Canada's world junior team.
Based on his play for Team WHL in Thursday's Subway Super Series game at CN Centre, Connolly has to be considered one of the frontrunners to be one of the chosen few.
Against a highly-skilled Russian team, he showed signs of his ability to dictate what happens on the ice, especially when he's in possession of the puck. Connolly got the WHL offence going, albeit a bit too late, when he scored in the third period with Team Russia already ahead 4-0, sending a sellout crowd of 5,918 into a frenzy. As it turned out, there was no happy ending for the WHL team, which lost 5-2 as the Russians claimed their first Super Series win in eight attempts.
"For me, I wanted to step up and I knew we were down a few goals and it was good to get that goal and hear the crowd, it was something that I've never been a part of and it was huge," said Connolly.
"It was a good feeling and when they were announcing the goal, that was pretty cool. It sucks that it's not always like that. To see all the support out there was great and it shows we do have great fans in Prince George and we appreciate it," he said.
Connolly has gotten used to playing in a two-thirds empty CN Centre for Cougars games. He's been part of full-house P.G. crowds as a spectator, but never before as a player.
As anticipated, Connolly started the game on a line with Howse, his former teammate on the Prince George peewee and bantam teams. With captain Cody Eakin of the Swift Current Broncos at centre, WHL coach Ryan Huska put them to work early on the power play but that combination was unable to score.
"It was good to play with Ryan and good for the local fans to see that and I thought we played pretty well together until they switched lines up," said Connolly. "It was fun to play with Howser, he's a great player and he's got a great future."
Late in the second period, Howse swapped places with Quinton Howden to hook up with Inglis and Brendan Gallagher. The Russians must have had the book on Howse, the ever-dangerous Chilliwack Bruins' sniper, because it seemed whenever he had the puck and was in the act of shooting, there was somebody in a red jersey to get in the way. Still, it was an unforgettable night for the 19-year-old Howse.
"I came away with a great experience, playing on a whole team of great players and it was a privilege and an honour to put on a WHL jersey playing in my hometown for friends and family," said Howse. "If they can keep up a crowd like that, it's a tough place to play. It would be exciting for the guys in the Cougar dressing room to experience that when you're on the ice.
"It was a neat experience to play with Brett, he's one of my better buddies back here in Prince George. We grew up playing minor hockey together and it was nice to play on his team one more time. We might not get that chance to do it ever again."
Inglis, Connolly's Cougar teammate, provided his usual energy-packed efforts at centre and made it his business to physically boss the Russians around. He had a few close sniffs at the net, but like most of the WHL players was unsuccessful in his attempts to beat Russian goalie Dmitry Shikin.
Thirty-five players will be invited to the Team Canada world junior team camp, Dec. 11-15 in Toronto. A team of 22 players will be left following the final cuts.
Buffalo, N.Y., will host the IIHF world junior hockey championship, Dec. 26-Jan. 4.
