A dream come true for Hurricanes trio at U-17 Hockey Challenge

By Lethbridge Herald on November 3, 2022.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes will be well represented at the U-17 Hockey Challenge beginning this week in B.C.

Canes defenceman Tristen Doyle and forward Miguel Marques will be playing for Team Canada White, while assistant coach Ryan Aasman will be video coach for Team Canada Red.

The U-17 Hockey Challenge is the first step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence and showcases the future stars of the game.

Doyle has dreamt  about donning the Team Canada jersey since he was a kid.

“It’s just special,” said Doyle.

“It’ll be a very special moment for me and my family and it’ll be a cool experience.”

Doyle said it was a really skilled camp, when asked about the summer camp experience.

“I think our team going into the tournament, we’re pretty good (and) we’ve got a  good squad,” said Doyle.

“I don’t know, hopefully we can get the win.”

Doyle thinks having Marques and Aasman at the Challenge will make it more comfortable for him to be there.

“It’s been a dream ever since I was a little kid,” said Marques.

“To finally do it, it’s a great honour, and can’t wait to be there will my teammates, my coaches and my family there to watch.”

Marques said obviously it’s going to be a tough tournament and it’s a short-term competition.

“So you have to gel with your teammates and able to win,” said Marques.

“Yeah, it’s going to be an awesome tournament, and to get with my teammates back from the summer camp — the guys that I met there and obviously the guys I know from the Western League. But, yeah, it’s going to be awesome playing some tough teams. Obviously, Sweden Finland , Czech and the three Canadian teams. So yeah it’ll be fun.”

“I’m excited for the opportunity,” said Aasman.

“It will be good to get involved in the Hockey Canada stream and learn from some new coaches. I mean it will be great to just absorb the information and it’ll be fun to work with some elite hockey players as well.”

Aasman thinks it will be cool to see the different philosophies from different coaches.

“Structure-wise, is there little things to steal in terms of how different coaches want to play?,” said Aasman.

“It’ll be interesting to learn how to do a short-term competition as well. You’ve got to get a group together really fast, play for two weeks and try to find a way to win a tournament , and how much is that different than a long-term season — that’ll be really good. I think there will be so much learning.”

There were 66 players named that will make up the three Canadian squads in the showcase that will compete against teams from the USA, Sweden, Finland and Czechia.

The U-17 Hockey Challenge goes from Nov. 3-12 in Delta and Langley, B.C.

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