17-year-old Calen Addison is currently living his dream of playing for team Canada, as he made the team that is in the Czech Republic right now taking part in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
“It’s just a huge honour to obviously represent your country, and to wear the Maple Leaf, it’s one of the most special feelings you can have in life,” said Addison. “It’s really cool being overseas here in Slovakia in the summer with all the top players in the world.”
Addison and the rest of team Canada began their tournament yesterday and suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss against Russia, but they rebounded nicely this morning in beating Finland, 5-1.
Now Canada will take on one of the host nations, Slovakia tomorrow. Slovakia lost their first game, 6-1 against Finland and will take on the tough Russian team later this afternoon.
”The key for us is to not take them lightly,” said Addison. “If you take teams lightly, you risk bad things happening, and losses. If we don’t take them lightly, we should be fine, but if we do, you never know what could happen.”
After the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, Addison will continue his hockey with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the WHL. In his first full season with the team last year, he played in 63 games, putting up 33 points (9 goals, 24 assists).
“The coaches and General Manager gave me every opportunity they could on the ice this past year,” said Addison. “They really looked upon me to have success offensively and defensively. As a 16-year-old, it’s always tough to get ice-time, but I was lucky enough to get lots and that has given me confidence going forward.”
Addison also noted that whenever Team Canada takes part in a tournament, they expect to win, and that’s what they expect to do this tournament, despite losing their first game against Russia.
To keep up to date with everything at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, visit http://hlinkamemorial.com/eng/index.asp
