Day, Kirkpatrick, Slaney & Bast named to team Canada roster for upcoming Winter Universiade

X-Men defenseman Josh Day, along with forwards Michael Kirkpatrick, Rob Slaney and Jason Bast (alternate) were named to team Caanda's roster for the upcoming Winter Universiade in Italy this December. They will be accompanied by their head coach Brad Peddle who is an assistant coach with the team.

2013 Winter Universiade
CIS announces Canadian men's hockey roster

OTTAWA (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Wednesday the Canadian men's hockey roster for the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy.

The 26th biennial Games will run from December 10 to 21, with the men's hockey gold-medal match set for the final day of competition.

An all-star team comprised entirely of players from the AUS conference will wear the maple leaf jersey on their chests in Trentino.

Since 1997, Canada has been represented at the Games in men's hockey by each of three CIS leagues on a rotating basis. Atlantic University Sport standouts have been successful in each of their two previous trips to the event, returning home with silver in 2001 (Zakopane, Poland) and gold in 2007 (Turin, Italy).

As announced in February of 2012, Gardiner MacDougall, head coach of the reigning CIS champion UNB Varsity Reds, will serve as Team Canada bench boss in Italy. He will be assisted by St. Francis Xavier's Brad Peddle and UPEI's Forbes MacPherson.

Rounding out the support staff are general manager Danny Lynch (UNB), video coach Todd Sparks (UNB), equipment manager Serge LeBlanc (Moncton) and therapist Joe Glenn (UNB).

The roster was finalized following an all-star game featuring top prospects held last Friday in Fredericton.

"Someone once told me that if you can find a special group of players who enjoy competing and working hard, who love to chase pucks and win races and who really care for one another, that you have the foundation for a successful hockey team, said MacDougall, who has led UNB to four CIS titles in the past seven years and who was an assistant to Saint Mary's Trevor Stienburg on the Universiade gold medal-winning team in 2007. "These are the key attributes that we found from our chosen players after our recent all-star game and training camp and we are excited about the journey ahead as we represent the AUS and CIS at the FISU Games."

The 23-man lineup includes three goaltenders, seven defencemen and 12 forwards, as well as one alternate.

In net, Jonathan Groenheyde of St. Thomas, Anthony Peters of Saint Mary's and Wayne Savage of UPEI will compete for the starting job.

On defence, the UPEI duo of Matthew Maione and Alex Wall is accompanied by StFX's Josh Day, UNB's Marc-Antoine Desnoyers, Saint Mary's Michael D'Orazio, Moncton's Simon Lacroix and Acadia's Christopher Owens.

The offensive unit is led by reigning CIS player of the year Lucas Bloodoff from Saint Mary's and also includes teammate Cory Tanaka from the Huskies, Tyler Carroll, Chris Culligan and Nick MacNeil from UNB, Mike Cazzola and Liam Heelis of Acadia, Michael Kirkpatrick and Rob Slaney of StFX, as well as UPEI's Chris Desousa, Moncton's Eric Faille and Dalhousie's Pierre Vandall.

Jason Bast, a forward from StFX, has been selected as an alternate in case of an injury.

Canada heads to Trentino as defending bronze medallist from the 2011 competition in Erzurum, Turkey, where players from the OUA conference defeated Kazakhstan 3-1 in the third-place match after falling 4-2 to two-time reigning champion Russia in the semifinals.

In 13 all-time appearances at the Universiade tourney, the Canucks have tallied an impressive 12 medals, including three gold, three silver and six bronze. In addition to the title won by AUS all-stars in 2007, the red and white was crowned in 1991 in Sapporo, Japan, while represented by the senior national squad, and in 1981 in Jaca, Spain, when the University of Alberta Golden Bears wore the maple leaf uniform.

Twelve teams will compete for FISU gold next month, including Canada, Japan Ukraine and Kazakhstan in Pool A, Russia, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in Pool B, as well as Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the United States in Pool C. The top two squads from each group and the top two third-place finishers advance to the quarter-finals.

In the preliminary round, the Canadians are set to face Japan on Dec. 10, Ukraine on Dec. 13 and Kazakhstan on Dec. 15, all at 8 p.m. local time (6 hours ahead of EST).

Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2013/index
Trentino 2013 website: http://www.universiadetrentino.org/

TEAM CANADA ROSTER 
 
Name   University Elig. Hometown  Academic Program  

Goaltenders
Jonathan Groenheyde St. Thomas  2  Surrey, B.C.  Arts 
Anthony Peters  Saint Mary's  3  Blyth, Ont.  Commerce
Wayne Savage  UPEI   4  St. Thomas, Ont. Arts
 
Defencemen
Josh Day  StFX   5  St. John's, Nfld.  Arts
Marc-Antoine Desnoyers UNB   4 Saint-Hippolyte, Que. Business Administration
Michael D'Orazio Saint Mary's  3 Richmond Hill, Ont. Commerce
Simon Lacroix  Moncton  4 Orleans, Ont.  Accounting
Matthew Maione UPEI   4 Unionville, Ont.  Arts
Christopher Owens Acadia   4 St. John's, Nfld.  Business Administration
Alex Wall  UPEI   3 Mount Pearl, Nfld. Science 
 
Forwards
Lucas Bloodoff  Saint Mary's  4 Castlegar, B.C.  Commerce
Tyler Carroll  UNB   3 Strathroy, Ont.  Rec. & Sports Studies
Mike Cazzola  Acadia   2 Guelph, Ont.  Kinesiology
Chris Culligan  UNB   5 Howie Center, N.S. Rec. & Sports Studies
Chris Desousa  UPEI   3 Mississauga, Ont. Arts
Eric Faille  Moncton  4 Lachine, Que.  Accounting 
Liam Heelis  Acadia   3 Georgetown, Ont. Science 
Michael Kirkpatrick StFX   3 North Sydney, N.S. Business Administration
Nick MacNeil  UNB   4 Creignish, N.S.  Business Administration
Rob Slaney   StFX   4 Portugal Cove, Nfld. Human Kinetics
Cory Tanaka  Saint Mary's  5 Stouffville, Ont.  MBA
Pierre Vandall  Dalhousie  4 St-Louis-de-France, Que. Engineering

Alternate (forward)
Jason Bast  StFX   4 Regina, Sask.  Human Kinetics

STAFF

General Manager: Danny Lynch (UNB)
Head Coach: Gardiner MacDougall (UNB)
Assistant Coach: Brad Peddle (StFX)
Assistant Coach: Forbes MacPherson (UPEI)
Video Coach: Todd Sparks (UNB)
Equipment Manager: Serge LeBlanc (Moncton)
Therapist: Joe Glenn (UNB)
           
TEAM CANADA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE (all times local / 6 hours ahead of EST)

Dec. 10 (20:00): Canada vs. Japan
Dec. 13 (20:00): Canada vs. Ukraine
Dec. 15 (20:00): Canada vs. Kazakhstan
Dec. 18 (TBD): Quarter-finals
Dec. 20 (TBD): Semifinals
Dec. 21 (10:30): Bronze
Dec. 21 (14:30): Final

About the Winter Universiade

The Winter Universiade is a biennial international multi-sport event open to competitors who are at least 17 and less than 28 years of age as of January 1 in the year of the Games. Participants must be full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event. The competition program of the Trentino Universiade includes alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey (women & men), nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating (short & long track).

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CIS_SIC  
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cissports
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/universitysport

-CIS-

For more information:

Michel Bélanger       
Manager, Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Off: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger@universitysport.ca