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Brennan basks in golden glow of U-18 world championship

Cougars netminder gains valuable experience in Texas tournament

In all his years of stopping pucks, Tyler Brennan has had the pleasure of joining just two hockey dogpiles.

The first was four years ago when he was a 13-year-old peewee after his team won the Winnipeg city championship.

The second came Thursday night in Frisco, Texas, after Canada beat Russia 5-3 for gold at the IIHF U-18 World Championship. Brennan was ready with his goalie gear on waiting for the final seconds to tick down in the Zamboni entrance with spare defenceman Denton Mateychuk when they opened the gate to join a celebration like no other he’s had before.

“Obviously it was pretty special for me to get dressed and go out there to be able to celebrate with the guys and share that moment with all of them, “ said Brennan. “It’s the highlight of my career so far. Nothing compares to this. This is way higher than anything else I’ve ever played in. Just to be able to have that gold medal sitting in my room now is something I’ll never forget, I’ll have that medal for the rest of my life.”

Brennan, a second-year Prince George Cougar, played four games for the Cats in the lead-in to the U-18 championship and was sharp in all four games, allowing just nine goals. He blanked the Vancouver Giants April 4th for his first career WHL shutout but lost that game 1-0 in a shootout and finished the brief season with a 2-0-1-1 record.

He had to leave the Cougars a week before the U-18 tournament began and was in quarantine for five days before he left for Texas. Canada went undefeated , winning one exhibition game, four round-robin games and three playoff games in their run for gold.

Unfortunately for Brennan, Team Canada coach Dave Barr went exclusively with goalies Benjamin Gaudreau (Sarnia Sting) and Thomas Milic (Seattle Thunderbirds) and Brennan was left out of the starting lineup entirely. That’s partly due to the fact the other two goalies are draft-eligible this year, while Brennan, who turns 18 on Sept. 27, just after the Sept. 15, cutoff date, and won’t be available to NHL teams until next year.

“I just learned how to be a good teammate and stay positive,” said Brennan. “It was kind of not what I wanted to happen but someone has to fill that role and I accepted that role and made the most of it. I was with them pretty much every hour of every day and you create bonds that you don’t create really with anyone else, besides your team back where you play. It’s something that’s pretty special.”

Gaudreau plays in the Ontario Hockey League, which canceled its season due to the pandemic, so the U-18 tournament was the only opportunity for him to showcase his talents and he made the most of it. He played in five tournament games and was chosen the top goalie after leading the pack with a 2.20 goals-against average and 91.9 save percentage. Brennan wasn’t told at any point about how he would be utilized during the tournament and had to be ready in case either of the other two goalies got injured.  

“I kind of just went day-by-day and every game day I got told what my plan was for that day, it wasn’t set goalies going in, it was pretty much going day-to-day,” he said . “ I’m proud of those two guys for going out and showcasing themselves and I couldn’t be happier for them. (Gaudreau) played unreal every game and every time he was in the net I was confident we were going to win the game.”

Brennan practiced with the team  and for two weeks did everything together with his national teammates and got to know them well. He has first-hand experience making saves against world-class shooters like Shane Wright, Dylan Guenther and Connor Bedard, doing their best to score on him and will take that into next season when he rejoins the Cougars, the team that chose him in the first round, 21st overall in the 2018 WHL draft.

“Those three (have) a calibre of shots I’ve rarely seen before or faced before - their releases, their shot power and placement are above par to everyone else,” Brennan said. “It’s not just those three, everyone else on the team is unbelievably skilled and it was really good for me being able to practice with those guys.”

Canada breezed to a 12-1 win over Sweden in the first game but the Canadians had their hands full the next game against Latvia and squeaked out  narrow 4-2 decision. Brennan said that served as wakeup call that despite all their firepower, Canada was going to have to work that much harder the rest of the tournament to avoid an upset.

Brennan’s U-18 experience was similar to that of his Cougar teammate Taylor Gauthier, the third goalie on Canada’s national team at the 2021 World Junior Championship in Edmonton. Gauthier made the team but did not dress for any of the games, while Devon Levi backstopped Canada to a silver medal with Kamloops Blazers goalie Dylan Garand limited to just one period of game action.

Gauthier has been on Hockey Canada’s radar throughout his junior career. In 2018 he played in five games at the U-18 world championship in Russia and that year led Canada to a gold-medal win at the Ivan Hlinka Cup in Edmonton.

“He talked to me about my experience and told me what to expect,” said Brennan. “”He just told me to go there and have fun and play the game you love and have a good time with the guys and go and win a gold medal.”

This was Brennan’s first Hockey Canada experience, having played four games in 2019 in the World U-17 Hockey Challenge for Canada White.  

Brennan joined his Cougar teammates for unformal practice sessions in Prince George just after Christmas and spent five months away from his home in Winnipeg. After his quarantine in the Kamloops hub he was in isolation for another three days in Texas before he could skate with his national teammates.  Nobody in the Cougars camp or on Team Canada had a positive COVID test while Brennan was with either team.

He’s been watching on his computer all the Cougars games he’s missed and for the most part has liked what he’s seen. Heading into the final game Wednesday against Kamloops the Cats have a 9-9-2-1 record and as the second-youngest team in the WHL they are definitely heading in the right direction as future contenders for a WHL title. Four of the Cougars are from Winnipeg, including Brennan, forwards Jonny Hooker and Michael Svenson, and defenceman Hudson Thornton, who  joined the Cats this year after playing in the USHL and BCHL.

“I’m pretty excited for the next couple years, especially with Thornton coming,” said  Brennan. “I’ve been buddies with him for a couple years now and he’s going into add to the skill on the team. Our young players are really stepping up to the plate.

“They’re already performing really well so to see what they have in store for the next couple years is going to be pretty impressive and I think we’re going to make a big run. The fans deserve (a championship) and we’re going to work as hard as we can to bring one back.”