Team Canada continues to impress at World Junior Hockey Championships

Sudbury Wolves player playing for Team Canada North American Central Scouting and the Sudbury Wolves weigh in on Canada's chances at the World Juniors. Jaime McKee reports.

SUDBURY — Team Canada is looking to become back-to-back champions at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships as they head in to the semi-finals in Edmonton.

Their record stands at four wins and zero losses after defeating Czech Republic in the quarter-finals Saturday.

North American’s Central Scouting, Director of Scouting, Mark Siedel spoke with CTV News and said he thinks Canada can go all the way.

“Your best players have to be your best players. Canada’s blessed that they have 4 lines of high end talent, large number of NHL first round draft picks.”

“They certainly will have to play well. The goaltending has to be great, and you have to be great defensively. Whoever wins this tournament will do those three things.”

It’s another do or die game Monday when Canada faces Russia in the semi finals, when they will be looking to book their ticket to the final for a second year in a row.

“They’ve showed resilience like Canadians do. They’ve come together. Everyone from the first line to the fourth line has played well,” said Siedel.

“You have first round picks who are playing on the fourth line, playing well. I think Canada has done a masterful job so far, and we will see if they can continue in the medal round.”

One of Canada’s forwards is Sudbury Wolves forward Quinton Byfield.

Byfield was drafted second overall to the Los Angeles in the 2020 NHL Draft and had a six point performance for team Canada when they played Switzerland in the round robin tournament.

“He’s playing way more physical then he’s ever played, in the last couple years,” said Sudbury Wolves General Manager Rob Papineau.

“His game is rounding out, obviously the offense is there like we saw the other night but he’s really becoming more and more of a complete player everyday that goes by.”

There’s no word on if there will be a 2021 Ontario Hockey League season, but Papineau said he’s excited to potentially have Byfield back in a Wolves jersey.

“We had an amazing captain this year, McCauley Carson, and players vote on who’s the player’s, player, and McCauley won. He’s a great leader but the number two guy in votes by his teammates was Quinton Byfield,” said Papineau.

“It just speaks to the type of individual he is, type of player he is, type of teammate he is and when he comes back he’s going to play hard because that’s all he knows how to do.”

Team Canada has Sunday off in Edmonton before the puck drops for the semi final game against Russia on Monday.