Team Canada captured gold on Sunday at the 2023 IIHF World Championship in Finland.
While he did not play in Sunday's championship game — or in any of Canada's final five games at the tournament — former Saint John Sea Dogs forward Joe Veleno was on the ice in full equipment to accept his medal.
Veleno received a five-game suspension for a stomp he put on Switzerland's Nino Niederreiter in a preliminary round game on May 20. The ban made the Detroit Red Wings forward ineligible to play for the rest of the tournament.
Veleno had been playing on Team Canada's top line with Sammy Blais and Milan Lucic. He finished the tournament with two goals and three assists in five games.
The loss of Veleno didn't seem to hurt Canada too much who, after finishing second in Group B behind Switzerland, went on to defeat Finland in the quarterfinals and Latvia in the semis. On Sunday, Blais, a former member of the Victoriaville Tigres and Charlottetown Islanders, scored twice to help Canada defeat Germany 5-2 to win gold.
Other QMJHL alumni on Team Canada included goaltender Samuel Montembeault along with defensemen Justin Barron, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and MacKeznie Weegar. Andre Tourigny was the team's head coach.
Other Sea Dogs alumni who played in this year's tournament included Swiss netminder Robert Mayer and Czechia defenseman Jakub Zboril.
No comments:
Post a Comment