Canada is to host World Sledge Hockey Challenge – Paralympics News
Team Canada has been nominated as the heavy favourite for World Sledge Hockey Challenge, which will consists of four of the world’s top teams. The event will take place from 27th November to 3rd December in
Calgary, Canada.
Most players are picking the Canadian team as their preferred team for this weekend’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge and it will certainly boost Canada’s performance as they will be playing on their home ice against Japan, Norway
and the USA at the new WinSport Canada Athletic and Ice Complex in Calgary.
Team captain Greg Westlake said, “You can definitely feel a difference when we get to play in Canada, the whole community ends up supporting us, whether we are out for dinner or just walking around the city, people are always wishing
us luck and wanting the best for our team. We don't get quite the same sentiment when we are outside of Canada.”
At the Vancouver 2010 Paralympics Winter Games, the Canadians had recoiled from a disappointing fourth-place finish to conquer Norway with a score of 8-0 and won a gold medal at April’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge. The Canadian
team had won all five of their matches at the tournament and outperformed their opponents with a score of 48-2.
This time the team lineup is extremely exciting and with the best first liners; Westlake, Brad Bowden and Billy Bridges in the team, the crowds and fans will be expecting highly efficient goals from team Canada.
The player Westlake should be the one to watch out for as he had bagged a total of nine goals and nine assists at April’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge. Moreover, he had spent the offseason hand cycling in order to build up his
upper-body strength.
On the other hand, Bowden is also one of the most valuable players for team Canada and last year he had scored seven goals and 11 assists in April.
On the defence it will be Adam Dixon along with experienced forward Marc Dorion, add this to the mix and Canada has plenty of depth to win the Challenge title once again. With what are arguably the top four teams in the world on
one ice arena, upsets are bound to happen!
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