“It’s something I will never forget,”
Those were the words of Prince George Cougars netminder Taylor Gauthier who came home with a silver medal after suiting up for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton.
Team Canada fell 2-0 to the United States during Tuesday’s Gold Medal game.
During a Zoom call, Gauthier said it was great to be apart of the national team despite not seeing any game action.
“Getting that one last kick at the can with Team Canada was something I will never forget. Being apart of the World Junior team is something you dream of every since you were a kid so sharing that experience with my family is really special. It would have been nice to play in a game as you always want to do the best that you can and want to push for more but at the end of the day, it’s always nice to be considered one of the top three junior goaltenders in Canada.”
“Your expectations are to come home with gold every year, it didn’t work out for us this year as the bounces didn’t go our way in the gold medal game but regardless of the result it was a really special moment to be with 24 of the best players in Canada.”
Even as the third goalie, Gauthier felt it was important to bring his best every day and to learn from fellow goaltenders Dylan Garrand and Devon Levi who was named the tournament’s top netminder.
“It did a lot to boost my game and I am looking forward to bringing back all of the things I learned in practice and video as well as everything we did as a team. It’s kind of up in the air when we are going to start but I am looking forward to bringing back that experience to the Cougars.”
“It was pretty important to be apart of the team still and not just show up at game time and watch the game and get out of there. I wanted to go in there and bring something to the team and I felt I did a good job of that.”
Gauthier was one of two PG Cougar players to play at the World Juniors.
The other was import forward Filip Koffer who represented the Czech Republic.