DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor
 
    Wayne Gretzky. Mario Lemieux. Eric Lindros. Sidney Crosby.

All are either past, current or future Canadian hockey greats — all honed their identities as NHL superstars on the world’s stage at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Under 20 Championship.

    And this past Dec. 26, the prestigious tournament that showcases the best of the best of hockey’s future stars came to Saskatoon for more than 10 days of world junior hockey. Saskatoon continued to feel like an NHL city over the Christmas break after being treated to New York Islanders exhibition games in the fall. Once again, the Paris of the Prairies was swept up in hockey hysteria.

    The IIHF tournament is a huge deal for several reasons and is growing in popularity all over the globe. First off, the tournament shows off the next big players from around the world, which puts tremendous pressure on them to perform for their future spots in the NHL in front of thousands of fans and hundreds of scouts. Thus, the level of competition is incredibly intense and fast-paced — for a lot of these kids it’s either perform and make it big, or choke and be sent home. Fans can be assured the players will skate their hearts out in the IIHF tournament.

    Secondly, the gripping international rivalries are rarely a let-down. Canada has two notorious rivals in Russia and the U.S.A. and the games always promise to be tense, heated and close.

    Fondly known as the Boxing Day classic, this hockey tournament has been around since 1997 but it wasn’t until the mid-’80s that the event evolved into a Christmas custom for most Canadians. Comparably, the IIHF tournament is as deeply rooted a tradition to most Canadians as Grey Cup fever is to people from Saskatchewan. The tournament was also held in conjunction with Regina’s Brandt Centre where the Group B of Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Austria played their round robin games.

   Anywhere you were in Saskatoon over the past week, it would have been practically impossible not to be aware that the IIHF tournament was happening. From Saskatonians draping themselves in special- edition green Canada jerseys to commemorate Saskatchewan, to bumper-to-bumper traffic everywhere you looked, to filling up local pubs on a nightly basis with hockey-giddy Canadians, it was evident international hockey was at home in Saskatchewan.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies also got in on the IIHF festivities and played a exhibition game against Slovakia on Dec. 22. The Huskies dominated the Slovakians and came away with a 6-2 victory. Huskies Andrew Bailey netted a hat-trick for the Green and White in the impressive victory over the younger European team.

    All in all, the IIHF tournament in Saskatoon was junior level hockey at its finest and will serve as a good precursor for the hockey-hungry hype already building in anticipation of the 2010 Olympics. General manager of Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team and former Detroit Redwings captain, Steve Yzerman, was even on hand to announce the official 23-man roster for Team Canada on Dec. 30 at a flashy press conference in Saskatoon.

    Other such hockey greats rumoured to be roaming around the Credit Union Centre included retired Bruins defenceman Ray Borque, Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke, Mark Messier and Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe.

    It was also the second time the IIHF World junior tournament was held in Saskatoon (first in 1991) and cost approximately $12.5 million for the city and Hockey Canada to host it. Impressively, on New Years’ Eve and some playoff games the 50/50 draws surpassed $100,000 before the puck was even dropped.

    Though Saskatoon did an excellent job organizing the international event, it wasn’t wholly flawless.

Canadian fans were lacklustre and only filled CUC to capacity on Dec. 31 and the gold medal game on Jan. 5. The fans in attendance were only moderately rowdy and it would have been nice to see more sell-outs for the Canada games.

Also, traffic flow around CUC was brutal at times and as the week wound down, most fans were likely ready to thrust a knife into the back of the Pepsi promotion guy and his never-ending instigation of the “Eh! O’ Canada, Go!” chant. The Pepsi cheer was lame and uninspiring at best and exposed the world to a new level of how enthusiastically geeky Canadians can get when it comes to hockey.  

    The Canadian junior team has capitalized at the last five IIHF tournaments, coming away with five straight gold medals, tying its own infamous streak from 1993-1997.

If Canada had achieved gold medal glory in Saskatoon for a sixth consecutive time, they would have set a new record for the longest winning streak in the history of the IIHF U20 tournament. But all streaks come to an end, as did Canada’s with a 6-5 loss to Team U.S.A. on Jan. 5 at a frenzied, sold-out CUC.

Earlier in the day Sweden won bronze with an 11-4 score over Switzerland.

    Team Canada narrowly escaped with a 5-4 shootout victory in an off-the-wall New Years’ Eve bout at CUC. The game was also arguably one of the most exciting of the tournament and lacked no intensity.

    Saskatoon will continue to be treated to prominent sporting events in coming weeks when the Olympic torch passes through the city on Jan. 11 and later on Feb. 5 when Wayne Gretzky arrives to speak at the 50th annual Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner.

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The best photos of the tournament

All photos by Michelle Berg. See her Flickr stream!

All photos by The Sheaf. See our Flickr stream!

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photos: Robby Davis and Michelle Berg