CALGARY, Alta. – Canada’s National Junior Team will gather in Toronto on Aug. 2-3, prior to departing for Yaroslavl, Russia for the first two games of the 2012 Canada-Russia Challenge. The final two games of the series will be played in Halifax, N.S., and all four games will be broadcast by Hockey Canada’s official broadcasters, TSN and RDS.  Check your local listings for broadcast times in your area.

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The Canada-Russia Challenge is the first step in identifying players for Canada’s National Junior Team for the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship, which will be held from Dec. 26, 2012 to Jan. 5, 2013 in Ufa, Russia. At the conclusion of the summer event, Kevin Prendergast, Hockey Canada’s head scout for the men’s Program of Excellence, will continue to monitor these players and other potential candidates for the team’s selection camp in December 2012.

The Canada-Russia Challenge will pay tribute to the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series. 

Twenty-eight players – three goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 15 forwards – will represent Canada at the 2012 Canada-Russia Challenge, with games on Aug. 9 and 10 in Yaroslavl and Aug. 13 and 14 in Halifax, N.S.

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The 28 players, all born in 1993 or 1994, were selected by Prendergast, in consultation with Hockey Canada’s vice-president of hockey operations and national teams, Brad Pascall, Hockey Canada’s senior director of hockey operations and national teams, Scott Salmond, head coach Steve Spott (Kitchener, OHL) and assistant coaches Mario Duhamel (Drummondville, QMJHL), Don Nachbaur (Spokane, WHL) and André Tourigny (Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL). Prendergast evaluated players over the course of the 2011-12 season, following these players along with numerous other candidates for the program during league play, as well as during international competitions for both the under-18 and under-20 programs.

Source: Hockey Canada