Canada is a perennial favourite to win the world junior hockey championship but there are two members of the Prince George Cougars who will be cheering against the Canadian team when it opens the tournament Dec. 26 in Montreal against Slovakia.
One of them is Cougars right winger David Soltes, who has been picked to play for Slovakia. Soltes played in Tuesday's Teddy Bear Toss game against the Saskatoon Blades and boarded a plane for Slovakia Wednesday morning.
The other is American-born Cougars forward Zach Pochiro, who centres Soltes's line. Pochiro says he would dearly love to see Soltes and the Slovakians pull off a huge upset and beat the Canadians, a team of future NHL stars, on their own turf.
"I think I'll be the only one on the team [cheering for Slovakia] because I'm the only American," said Pochiro. "I hope they beat them and he scores a couple goals. It's amazing for him, it's great for anyone's career.
"He won't forget that game for the rest of his life. I really hope he goes out there and plays the way he can and represents our team. They're going to talk about him playing for the WHL in Prince George and with this New Ice Age it's great media for the whole team."
This will be the second chance for Soltes to represent his home country. In April 2013 he played in the under-18 world championship in Sochi, Russia. The team opened with a 4-1 loss to Canada and Soltes scored his club's only goal. The Canadian team, which included Connor McDavid, Sam Bennett, Madison Bowey and Sam Reinhart, went on to win gold.
Soltes would likely have made the under-20 team for last year's world junior tournament but suffered a season-ending knee injury 15 games into his rookie WHL season with the Cougars. He says it won't be hard to get revved up to play against Team Canada with a full house of 21,273 expected at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
"Canada is going to be playing at home and that game will be lots of fun, it's going to be a good atmosphere," said Soltes. "It will be a hard game. Canada's a good team. I'm very happy and proud to play for my country."
Soltes has nine goals and 17 points in 23 games for the Cougars and drew an assist in Tuesday's 4-3 victory as part of a new line combination with Pochiro and Chase Witala. The 19-year-old Slovakian has a great shot and has been used to cover the point position on power plays. Five of his eight goals have come during power plays.
The Slovakians will practice Friday and will play two exhibition games in Slovakia before they leave for Canada. The team will arrive in Montreal Dec. 18 and will begin a five-day camp the following day in Peterborough, Ont. They have two exhibition games booked against world junior junior opponents - Dec. 21 against Switzerland and Dec. 23 against the Czech Republic.
Soltes says he's unsure whether his parents, Gabriela and Ladislav, will be able to make the trip to Canada to watch him play for Slovakia. They had a trip booked last year to come to Prince George during the season but were unable to see him play for the Cougars after he got hurt.
The preliminary roster has four players from last year's world junior squad, including forward Martin Reway, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who plays for Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic. If he makes the team it will be his third world junior tournament. The other three returnees are forwards Peter Cehlarik (Boston, 2013 draft) and Pavol Skalicky, and defenceman Erik Cernak. Nineteen of the 27 players play for the Slovakian under-20 team in the Slovakian elite senior league.
Soltes is from Koice, the same hometown as his former teammate, defenceman Martin Bobos, who was released by the Cougars last week. They traveled together on the same flight to Slovakia on Wednesday. Soltes said Bobos will either play for Slovakia's under-20 team in the elite league or will get a position with a second tier senior league team.
