With 19 and 20 points respectively, Dylan Dean and Sammy Nelson became the highest-scoring duo to take the ice at the 15U World Youth Championships in Philadelphia. It was also the first time that teammates had finished one and two among scoring leaders, with Nelson setting the tournament record of 20 points in nine games. Both were crucial to SDP Elite’s success in the tournament, as one or both of them factored in on 29 of their team’s 54 goals.
Nelson is a proven producer, having been one of the top scorers in the 14U Minnesota High Performance League last fall. The 5-foot-11, 155-pound forward got a chance to show the world what makes him such a dangerous offensive threat at the ‘08 WYC. He opened up the tournament with a hat trick against RSG Selects. That would be the first of eight multi-point performances Nelson put on at the ‘08 WYC. His 20 points in nine games breaks the previous tournament record of 19 held by 2006-born Malcolm Spence.
After leading No. 7-ranked Mount St. Charles in scoring this past season, Dean got to showcase his scoring ability on the international stage at the ‘08 WYC. His nine goals and 19 points would have tied the tournament record, if not for the efforts of his SDP Elite teammate. Dean put together seven multi-point performances, none bigger than his two-goal, three-assist game against Czech Republic’s Crazy Hockey. That five-point display was the most by any player in a single game.
While Nelson led all skaters in goals (11) and points (20), a trio of forwards nearly out-did him with their ability to find the back of the net. Teammate Mikey Berchild and RSG Selects’ Ryan Tserlin each scored 10 goals apiece; one shy of Nelson’s mark. In fact, Tserlin accounted for more of his team’s offense than any other individual in the tournament. The 5-foot-7 New Jersey native factored in on 68 percent of RSG’s goals scored.
Berchild was one of the leading scorers in the country this past season for Shattuck-St. Mary’s. At the ‘08 WYC, he showed he could produce at the international level as well, finishing in the top five among scorers.
Underager Landon Dupont scored six goals and 12 points for Western Canada Prime. Both marks were tops among defensemen in the tournament. The 2009-born defender was second in the U15 Canadian Sports School Hockey League (CSSHL) this past season playing up an age level for Edge School as well. Dupont is quickly emerging as one of the top prospects of the birth year.
All individuals at the ‘08 World Youth Championships took part in off-ice combine testing. Those exercises included vertical jump, multi-rebound jump, broad jump, 20-meter sprint, fastest sprinter, pro agility, pull-ups and grip strength. Results were provided to each of the participants, with the top 10 performers from each exercise made public below.
Playing for Chill Hockey Club, Spencer Thornborough topped the overall leaderboard with a 1.836 Z-Score. Chase Petrova followed close behind with a 1.720, but after that, no other participant surpassed a 1.50 Z-Score. Thornborough ranked first in vertical jump, multi-rebound jump and pro agility. He also finished in the top three in broad jump and 20-meter sprint.
The off-ice combine was conducted by The Park Sports Facility, which is run by sports technologist Ryan Smyth.
Tournament MVP: Sammy Nelson, SDP Elite
Top Forward: Sammy Nelson, SDP Elite
Best Defenseman: Landon Dupont, WCAN Prime
Top Goalie: Luke Carrithers, SDP Elite
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At the Championship Cup for 2007-born teams, Dynamo Moscow lived up to its reputation as one of the premier squads this season. Following a 4-0-0 group play stage, the club went on to win its next three matchups in the playoffs. During the tournament, Dynamo’s incredible well-rounded team game was on full display. From scoring in bunches, to holding opponents to little offense, Dynamo was perfect. It all culminated in the championship game, where Dynamo edged SKA Strelna in a 3-2 victory.
Dynamo was one of five WHH-ranked teams in attendance at this year’s championship. Along with SKA Strelna, Dynamo joined Severstal Cherapovets, Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Siberia in Group B. Group A was home to world-ranked Avangard Omsk, Lokomotiv 2004 Yaroslavl and Salavat Yulaev. Rounding out the Group A teams were Dynamo Minsk and Amur. Each club played one game against its fellow group teams for playoff seeding. Avangard and Dynamo Moscow were the only teams to go undefeated in the group stage, ensuring them decent positioning in the quarterfinals of the playoff round.
Dynamo out-scored opponents by a combined 45-3 and was the only Group B team with a positive goal differential. They burned out goal lights as they averaged an incredible 11 goals per game, to go along with three shutouts. It’s defense didn’t allow much, and when it did, solid goaltending from Vladimir Selivanov and Kirill Golubev came up clutch. Avangard finished with a plus-21 goal differential and also carved through fellow group teams with ease.
It was an all-Dynamo opener when Moscow defeated Minsk 9-3 in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Mikhail Melikov collected a hat trick, while Ivan Ryabkin dished out three assists. Ryabkin and Melikov once again were standouts for Dynamo in their next contest. The duo combined for five points in a 7-1 victory over Amur, which secured them a spot in the championship game. Avangard emerged victorious in its first playoff game as well when it bested Metallurg 6-3. Janusz Heybatov notched two goals and an assist and six other players collected at least two points. The win set up a meeting with SKA Strelna in the semifinals with a future date with Dynamo Moscow on the line.
Strelna came out flying and opened up a two-goal lead in the first period. After regaining composure at the intermission, Avangard cut into the lead with a goal from Yegor Privalov. With about 10 minutes remaining in the game, Maxim Moiseev tied the game at 2 to force overtime. A little over three minutes into the extra frame, Alexander Moskalenko was the hero for Strelna when he tallied the game-winning goal. Roman Frass made a great individual rush up the ice and sent a perfect pass over to Moskalenko who sent a shot off the far post and in.
Dynamo Moscow once again got on the board first when Ivan Arkhipov tipped a shot from the point to kick off the scoring with 10 minutes left in the first period. With just over three minutes left, Melikov ripped a shot into the net to double Moscow’s lead. Ryabkin slid a pass over to Arseniy Anisimov, who then fed it through the crease to Melikov. Strelna, determined to change its fortunes, struck early in the second period to make it a 2-1 game. Erik Serbin rushed up the ice and created a partial two-on-one with Mikhail Lebdev. Lebdev finished the play when he shot the puck past the glove of Vladmir Selivanov. Ryabkin restored the two-goal lead when he one-timed a shot from the blue line through traffic with five minutes remaining in the second period.
Strelna made it a close game once more when it cashed in on an early power play in the third period. After goaltender Matvey Karbainov made a great outlet pass from near his crease, Strelna gained the offensive zone. The puck was thrown on net and deflected off Egor Platanov and in. Only down a goal, the remainder of regulation saw Strelna with numerous opportunities to tie the game, but a strong Dynamo defense held firm. Selivanov also came up with crucial saves down the final stages of the game as well to secure the championship. Ryabkin (10G, 15A) and Melikov (10G, 10A) finished as the top two scorers among all skaters.
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Champions were crowned at the third annual World Youth Championships in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Top select teams from across North America — and three European clubs — competed for the ‘08 WYC. After more than 100 games of action from the 15U age group, Minnesota-based SDP Elite earned the gold medal with a 5-2 win over Maroon Hockey. Goaltender Luke Carrithers had been one of the best in the tournament, leading his team to the championship with a 7-1-0 record. In the finale, though, he faced a trio of forwards Ben Bowen, Ethan Belchetz and Beckham Edwards from Maroon Hockey that presented the biggest challenge of the week.
Maroon Hockey entered the final as the only undefeated team at the ‘08 WYC. That would change when Riley Zupfer scored three consecutive goals in the second half to secure the championship for SDP Elite. Carrithers was sensational in the finale as well, making 33 saves en route to his tournament-leading sixth win.
Despite surrendering the most shots against in the ‘08 WYC, SDP Elite made it all the way to the ‘08 WYC finale with a 7-1-0 record. Luke Carrithers was a big reason for that playoff run, as he posted a 1.97 goals-against average and .914 save percentage through eight tournament games. An 18-save shutout in the semifinals helped propel SDP Elite to the championship game.
Maroon Hockey entered the final with a three-pronged attack of Ethan Belchetz, Ben Bowen and Beckham Edwards. However, when Carrithers took to the crease, none would be able to find the back of the net. The 5-foot-11 goaltender snuffed out Maroon’s three biggest offensive threats to help SDP Elite win gold on Tuesday.
Even though they were eliminated in the quarterfinals, both Jamie Glance and Braidy Wassilyn finished among the top five in points. A forward for Mount St. Charles this past season, Glance started the tournament off with a five-point performance on Friday. He followed that up with a three-point outing in a 5-2 win over Russia-based Provorov Selects. Glance would put together two more multi-point games before tournament’s end. His most pivotal performance being a two-goal game in the Round of 16, where Glance scored the game-winning goal in a 5-2 win that eliminated DraftDay-Black.
Wassilyn was equally influential for Everest Academy. Skating alongside Alex McLean, Wassilyn helped fuel an offense that finished third in scoring with 30 goals in seven games. The team’s plus-30 goal differential was the second-largest of all 36 participating teams.
They were only out-done by a pair of SDP forwards in Sammy Nelson and Dylan Dean.
Nelson scored a tournament-high 20 points in nine games. Eight of those came in the elimination rounds, including a pair of goals in the championship. Dean — another player from Mount St. Charles this season — added nine goals and 19 points to the mix. Together, they accounted for 37 percent of SDP Elite’s total offense.
Lightly tested throughout the tournament, Jacob Ceranic stopped 69-of-72 shots faced as he won five of his six starts for Maroon Hockey. He made __ of those saves in the _-_ win in the championship game.
After falling to RSG Selects 7-6 in a shootout on the opening day of the tournament, SDP Elite won eight straight games en route to ‘08 WYC gold. Each of their wins would be by a margin of three goals or more, as SDP dominated its opponents.
Nine different SDP skaters average a point per game at the tournament. That depth pushed the Minnesota-based club to the top of the standings. Their plus-36 goal differential was the best among the 36 participating teams.
In the elimination rounds, SDP faced three consecutive opponents who had not experienced a loss. In the quarterfinals, they beat previously undefeated Roc City Elite Red 6-2 on Monday. Then, SDP eliminated Western Canada Prime who was 7-0-0 prior to the matchup. And finally, in the championship, they handed Maroon Hockey its first, only and biggest defeat of the tournament.
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Pool play is over at the ‘08 World Selects Invitational from Nashville. A field that started with 34 teams has been cut down to 24 left in the hunt for youth hockey’s world championship. Eighty-five games featuring some of the best 2008-born youth hockey players has seen 44 of those contests decided by two goals or fewer. It’s been a tightly contested tournament thus far, and playoff hockey moving forward should only continue that trend.
Elimination rounds begin on Friday afternoon with eight play-in games. Winners of those matchups will advance to face the top eight seeds in the round of 16.
Here’s how I see the playoffs unfolding in the Music City:
Chaos in the early rounds could lead to chalk in the later rounds. I like Team Minnesota — the last team to qualify for the playoffs as the 24-seed — to pull off not one, but two upsets. Andrew Clark, Danny Peate and Ryder Siedow have shown to be offensive threats. Plus, I feel like Kazakhstan Selects may have benefitted from a weaker schedule in pool play. Obviously, not something they could control but all three of their wins came against teams that have already been eliminated from the tournament. I like Team MN to be victorious, but really whoever wins that 9-v-24 matchup should make it to the quarterfinals.
I like another Minnesota-based team to pull off a stunner in the opening round as well. Hard not to, I mean there’s six playoff teams that call the State of Hockey home. Similar to Kazakhstan, I think Swiss Selects benefitted from a 3-0-0 start against opponents that failed to qualify for the playoffs. Minnesota Generals, on the other hand, have played everyone tough, even in defeat. They win on Friday and set the stage for a Generals-vs-SKA Yunost rematch from Thursday — SKA defeated the Generals 4-1 and out-shot them 30-19 in the process.
CCM Selects and Finland Selects have set themselves apart from the group in a big way. I like the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to cruise to the semifinals, but only have one of them making it to the championship.
Should ID Selects and CCM clash in one half of the bracket, it’ll be the greatest collection of ‘08-born North American talent you’ll find in one place all year. J.P. Hurlbert, Michael Berchild, Cam Nimmer, Lukas Zajic on one side for ID. Alex McLean, Kent Greer, Maximus Crete, Avry Antsis on the other for CCM. It has the makings for an offensive track meet; a 6-4 type final. If you win that game, you win the tournament.
Finland Selects’ top players are something special. We’ve talked about players like Oliver Torkki and Viljo Kahkonen for about six months now. The team’s offense is dynamic, but in the playoffs of these elite tournaments, I think Finland may struggle to score. Teams tighten up defensively when it’s best on best. I just don’t see those top players having enough time and space to continue producing against Minnesota Blades, ID Selects and CCM. I’ll take Finland to squeak by the Blades, but come up just short in the title game.
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Nearly 70 games are in the books at the 15U World Selects Invitational in Nashville. The tournament nears the halfway point, as playoff matchups will begin Friday afternoon and a champion ultimately crowned on Sunday. WHH takes a look at 10 teams with the best odds of winning the ’08 Elite world championship.
Disclaimer: This is purely for entertainment purposes only. We do not encourage sports betting on youth hockey games in any form.
 | Western Selects |  | 2-1 |
 | CCM Selects | | 3-1 |
 | Finland Selects |  | 3-1 |
 | ID Selects | | 5-1 |
 | Minnesota Blades | | 8-1 |
 | SKA Yunost |  | 8-1 |
 | Swiss Selects |  | 15-1 |
 | Minnesota Lakers | | 16-1 |
 | DevCo Hockey |  | 20-1 |
 | National Hockey Prospects | | 30-1 |
Led by a pair of Los Angeles Jr. Kings in Tyus Sparks, Logan Stuart and Noah Davidson, Western Selects comes in as the current front-runner through four games. Each Jr. King has scored at least three goals apiece, with Sparks leading the charge with seven points. They did fall 5-1 to another favorite on the list, Minnesota Blades.
CCM Selects has won, and won big in all four games so far. We talked about some of their standouts thus far, and they’ve continued to tear it up into Day 2. Through four games, their average margin of victory 7.75 goals. However, their opponent’s combined record in the tournament is 1-13-0.
Viljo Kahkonen and Oliver Torkki have shown out to be two of the most productive ’08s in the tournament. That duo has led Finland Selects to a 3-0-0 start, and has combined for 17 points; the team as a whole has scored 22 goals.
ID Selects is loaded with some of the top talent in the U.S. That includes forward Cam Nimmer whose fresh off of a national championship run. Michael Berchild leads the team with six points. That’s matched by defenseman A.J. Francisco who began the tournament with points in three straight games.
ID Selects will open up Friday morning action against SKA Yunost. That matchup could have significant playoff seeding implications as well.
As mentioned, Minnesota Blades did beat Western Selects on Thursday. Forward Riley Zupfer posted three points in the win for Minnesota. He leads the team in scoring with seven points, and factored in on half the Blades’ offense.
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The best 2008-born youth hockey players in the world took to the ice at the 15U World Selects Invitational on Wednesday. Thirty-four teams from 12 countries squared off in Nashville, Tennessee, for the 14th annual WSI. Teams began pool play with two games each on the opening day of the tournament.
In 12 hours, more than 30 games went down across three rinks in the Music City. A lot of action crammed into a short amount of time saw plenty of standout performers. Canada’s Alex McLean, American-born Cooper Soller and Finnish forward Viljo Kahkonen were among those to make an early statement on the international stage.
Coming into the tournament, CCM Selects were one of the early favorites to perform well at the 15U WSI. Alex McLean being on the roster was one of the reasons for that, after scoring 112 points for the 14U Pittsburgh Penguins Elite this past season. He delivered in a big way in the first game of the tournament, with a six-point performance in a 12-3 win over Toronto Elite Hockey.
That game was the largest margin of victory among all contests on opening day. While CCM Selects were certainly thought of as a top team in the field, the dominant win validated just that.
Their second game of the day came against another North American-based program in Top Speed Hockey. And again, provided little resistance as CCM rolled to a 9-1 win. Defenseman Zach Nyman was a standout on the No. 1 ranked Vaughan Kings this season. He proved why with back-to-back three-point performances as a major factor in both wins for CCM Selects.
With 21 goals in just the first two games of the tournament, CCM Selects players dominate the scoring leaderboard. McLean, Nyman, Maximus Crete, Avry Antsis and Rudolfs Berzkalns are all among the top producers at the WSI thus far.
For as dominant of wins as CCM Selects has had in its first two games, there have been plenty of tight contests out of the gate.
A matchup between the Carolina Whalers and Kazakhstan Selects was just that, tied 3-3 with under 10 minutes to play in regulation. Then, Cooper Soller struck not once but twice in the waning moments to give the Whalers a 5-3 victory. Soller factored in on all five goals scored in the win, plus an assist in their 5-2 loss earlier in the day. The 5-foot-9 forward is no stranger to producing offense; he scored 31 goals and 76 points for the No. 1 ranked team in the U.S., Shattuck-St. Mary’s this season.
Factoring in on six of his team’s seven goals, no other player in the tournament has accounted for more of his team’s offense so far than Soller.
Viljo Kähkönen split time this past season playing up an age group for HIFK’s U16 team. The other half, he spent playing up even further with the club’s U18 team. It didn’t matter where he played, he produced, with 10 goals and 29 points in 29 games between the two rosters. It should come as no surprise that now playing against the best of his 2008 birth year, Kähkönen continues to produce at an impressive clip.
In Finland Selects’ first game of the tournament Kähkönen scored a pair of goals and assisted on two more. That led to a dominant 7-0 win over DraftDay Red. Him and fellow HIFK teammate Oliver Torkki could prove to be an impressive tandem at the WSI. Torkki was one of the leading scorers at the U16 age group in Finland this season. He picked up a pair of points alongside Kähkönen as well.
DraftDay Black got a 28-save performance out of Andrew McLouth in Game 1 of the WSI. They needed every one of those stops against ALPS Selects as Noah Barton scored the game-winning goal with 4:08 left in regulation. The 2-1 final was one of 14 games decided by two goals or less on the opening day of action.
McLouth is a 5-foot-11 goaltender who played for HoneyBaked this season. His showing in net was one of the better performances on Day 1, fueling a DraftDay Black victory.
He wasn’t the only one to steal a victory for his team. Andover, Minnesota native, Cash Cruitt stopped 24-of-25 shots faced against Pro Hockey White. That helped his Minnesota Blades team get out to a 1-0-0 start to the tournament with a 4-1 win despite being out-shot 25-20 in the contest.
Other standouts in net include Kazkhstan Selects Arseniy Kuchkovskiy, who’s stopped 37-of-40 shots in two games. ALPS Selects goaltenders Lenny Oppikofer and Nicolas Arcilla strung together back-to-back games of 24 and 25 saves. Each have allowed just two goals against, however, ALPS was unable to win either of those games despite the strong showings in net.
The 11-team 16U World Selects Invitational is running concurrent to the 15U tournament in the Music City this week. After six games on Day 1, NorthStar Elite Green sits comfortably in first place. A pair of goals from Cruz Martin helped NorthStar to a 6-1 win over Black Bear Selects. Black Bear was the lone team to play two games on opening day. They fell to Performance Hockey 5-1 as well.
Of the six games on Day 1, three were decided by two goals or fewer. TPH Selects and DevCo Hockey needed a shootout to settle their 2-2 tie. Michael Zajac’s goal, as well as Marcus Johnson’s three stops, were the difference in the shootout for TPH Selects.
Tournament action continues Thursday with 10 pool-play games.
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The 2023 World Selects Invitational spring series of events begins on Wednesday, with the ’08 WSI Elite tournament getting underway in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. More than 500 of the top prospects from the 2008 birth year will compete in the six-day event. Participants will represent 12 different countries, as they compete across 30 select teams assembled specifically for this tournament.
This tournament series dates all the way back to 2009, when names like Alexander Barkov, Filip Forsberg and Radek Faksa debuted on the youth hockey scene. Them, along with 650 other WSI tournament alumni have gone on to be selected in the NHL Draft over the past 10 years. This year, North American prospects like Michael Berchild, Caleb Malhotra and Ethan Garden look to make their mark on international youth hockey. Additionally, top Euros like Oliver Torkki, Arvid Ermeskog and Vladimir Provorov will make the trek across the Atlantic to go toe-to-toe with North America’s best.
Last year, Ryan Roobroeck broke the tournament record for points with 28 in nine games. Twelve months later, he’s projected to be a Top-5 pick in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection. His teammate in the WSI last spring, Gavin McKenna, went on to be the first overall selection in the 2022 WHL Draft. Together, they led Pro Hockey to the 15U championship against an International Stars team that was loaded with top American-born prospects. So much so that seven players from the Stars’ roster were just named to the 2023-24 U.S. National Team Development Program roster.
Bottom line, the WSI regularly serves as a launching point for top prospects in youth hockey.
Still dealing with the fallout of COVID-19 last spring, the 2022 tournament only featured five European teams. Travel restrictions and difficulties kept others from making the trip overseas. This spring, that number is expected to double, as teams from Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech, Slovakia and Kazakhstan will be in attendance. The Ford Ice Centers in Nashville will be packed with wall-to-wall action all week and WHH will have exclusive coverage of all the action.
The province of Ontario will be well represented in the Music City. In fact, 20 players from five of the Top-10 teams in the country are expected to be on hand for the ’08 WSI. The No. 1 ranked ‘08 team in the world, Vaughan Kings, will have five players competing for two different teams. Two of their top scorers, Caleb Malhotra and Zach Nyman will skate for CCM Selects. Their regular-season teammate and goaltender Joseph D’Angelo will suit up for opposing team Carolina Whalers; he is one of five Canadians playing for the U.S.-based select team.
Some other top performers from Ontario includ Maximus Crete, Bryson Morgan and Nikolas Rossetto. They were among the top scorers at the U15 All-Ontario Championships earlier this month. Goaltenders Cameron Ingram and Colin Elsworth were also impressive in that tournament with 1.00 and 1.50 goals-against averages respectively.
There is a plethora of American talent expected as well. Each of the top nine teams in the country will be represented by multiple players. Some of the more notable being No. 1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s leading scorer Michael Berchild. He finished the ‘22-23 season with 106 points; the fourth-most among ‘08s in the country. J.P. Hurlbert III led all U.S. skaters with 195 points in 75 games. Him and Berchild will be teammates at the ’08 WSI for ID Selects.
Lukas Zajic and Camden Nimmer will also skate for ID Selects. They were among some of the top performers at USA Hockey Nationals earlier this month. They also went head-to-head in the national title game, as Nimmer and his Bishop Kearney Selects took home gold.
The last time a European team won the North American WSI, Oliver Wahlstrom, Rasmus Sandin and Ryan Merkley were playing for Sweden Selects. Wahlstrom is in his third season for the New York Islanders. Sandin just finished his second season in the NHL with the Washington Capitals. Merkley made his NHL debut for the San Jose Sharks last season.
None of those three will be able to help Sweden claim World Selects gold in Nashville this week. However, players like Arvid Ermeskog, Salim Ismailov and Fabian Merkle-Rohdin certainly could.
Ermeskog is a standout forward for the No. 1 ranked team in Sweden, Nacka HK. He led the Sweden Hockey Trophy in scoring last fall with 11 points in seven games. Ismailov finished closely behind with 10 points for Flemingsbergs IK. On top of that, Merkle-Rohdin was a top performer at the U15 DIF Elitcup in September as well. He scored 14 points in that tournament for HV71. He also spent 23 games playing up an age level with the club’s U16 team.
Speaking of under-agers, Oliver Torkki and Jiko Laitinen were among some of the top scorers in Finland’s U16 SM-Series this season. Playing amongst competition where 85 percent of the players were older than these two ‘08s, Torkki and Laitinen finished third and fourth in points. Torkki scored 33 goals and 77 points in 39 games for HIFK. Laitinen finished with 76 points in 40 games. They will certainly be a force for Finland Selects at the ’08 WSI.
While he maintains dual citizenship being born in Tampa, Florida, Alex Theodore played the ‘22-23 season for the U15 Pilsen Wolves. He led the team in scoring with 53 points in 34 games. He also scored 16 points in 10 games with the club’s U17 team as well. Teammate Ben Reisnecker is another standout performer from Central Europe. From the blue line, Reisnecker scored 63 points in 47 games between the Wolves’ U15 and U17 teams as well. The pair will likely lead the Czech Knights’ offensive attack this week in Nashville.
In addition to the 2008 Elite event in Nashville, two other tournaments get underway this week as well. The U14 Girls event begins on Wednesday as well, hosted in Chamonix, France. Additionally, the 2011 AAA tournament kicks off from Bolzano, Italy, on Thursday.
Twelve girls teams from nine different countries will compete for the U14 championship. Czech Selects won the tournament last year. That snapped a three-year run of North American teams winning gold.
DraftDay, Minnesota Prospects, Premier Ice Prospects (PIP) Hockey and Pro Hockey will travel across the Atlantic to represent the U.S. and Canada. Select teams from Czech, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland will make the field of teams at the U14 tournament one of the most diverse among WSI events this spring.
The 2011 AAA tournament — open to all AAA-level players — consists of 13 teams from as many as nine different countries. It is the first of three WSI events to take place in the city of Bolzano.
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