Wood file: Canada can lose occasionally and still be No. 1
Canada was snakebit in the gold medal hockey game, and sometimes, even when you dominate the other team, you come up sho...
As the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) World Junior’s competition is about to begin, one small town in Saskatchewan near the Alberta border will be watching closely.
Macklin’s Cole Reschny is gearing up for his first World Juniors tournament.
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“As a young Canadian kid, I grew up watching this tournament my whole life,” he said. “Now that it’s all here and I have the opportunity to play in it. It’s very exciting and special.”
Reschny said if you were to tell seven-year-old him that one day he’d be playing in the World Juniors he’d be pretty excited.
“I think he’d be pretty happy and have a pretty big smile on his face,” he said.
This year’s World Juniors are held in Minneapolis Minnesota, and Reschny said his family will be able to make the trip south to watch.
Reschny does have some Team Canada experience suiting up in both U17 and U18 competitions, but he said it never gets old wearing his country’s jersey.
“It’s very special any chance you get the opportunity to represent your country,” he said. “It’s an honour … doing whatever you can to make the country proud and win every game.”
Canada’s last gold medal was in 2023 against Czechia – which ended in back-to-back heartbreaking quarterfinal losses.
This year the mentality is different, and Reschny said everyone wants to wipe away those quarterfinal memories.
“Obviously the last two years haven’t been the outcomes that our country wanted,” he said. “We have everyone that’s going to play a role and I’m sticking to that.”
Reschny added this team is very focused on the day-to-day.
“I think coming in with the mindset that we got a job to do and we got to get it done no matter the circumstances,” he said. “Obviously it’s on enemy territory here in the States.”
While there isn’t a specific round robin match up Reschny is the most excited for, there is one team he hopes Canada gets matched up against.
“I think all games are going to be huge, and obviously there’s some bigger ones that are going to be highly anticipated,” he said. “… hopefully we get to play the States and get the opportunity to take them down.”
Despite back-to-back disappointing finishes in the World Juniors, the expectations going into this year’s tournament are still just as high – to win a gold medal.
“Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Canada opens their tournament against Czechia on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Saskatchewan Time.
