Cleaver, Sharpe capture gold at World U17 Hockey Challenge

By Lethbridge Herald on November 14, 2023.

LethBrige Hurricanes PHoto Koen Cleaver and Will Sharpe share the trophy after winning the World U17 Hockey Challenge on Saturday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Hurricanes’ defencemen Will Sharpe and prospect goalie Koen Cleaver now know the golden feeling after both being a part of the gold medal-winning Team Canada White at the  World U17 Hockey Challenge in P.E.I.

“Yeah, it was a crazy time for me,” said Sharpe.

“It was pretty cool. It was  amazing to represent my country in that way and playing the sport I love. It was just a great experience.”

Team Canada won in thrilling fashion with a 2-1 overtime victory  in the gold medal game over the United States on Saturday to conclude the 10-day tournament.

“Well it was kind of just like a dream come true,” said Sharpe.

“It’s like what you’ve dreamed of as a kid, just playing for Canada. And obviously against the US in the finals is pretty cool and then winning in overtime just makes it even better.”

Sharpe felt the chemistry within the team got stronger as the tournament wore on.

“Because a bunch of guys who haven’t really all played together at once is a hard thing to do  going right into the tournament and then by the end of it we were all pretty close ,” said Sharpe.

“And yeah I feel just like the playmaking and I don’t know the swagger I guess of the team got a little better as the tournament went on.”

Sharpe thought the defensive part of the game was a big part of his tournament.

“Just being physical and just making good plays in the ‘D’ (defensive) zone and just being hard in the ‘D’ zone,” he said.

Hurricanes assistant coach Matt Anholt, who was a part of Team Canada Red’s bench, said, “just excellent” when seeing the Hurricane teammates win gold.

“We were out but we were able to watch the semi-final and the gold medal game as a team and as a staff, and cheer on the other Canadian team and nothing better than watching Canada beat the States in a final,” said Anholt.

Anholt learned the little things at the tournament.

“Like how to work day to day, and how to evaluate players and little systematic things,  you know, lots of good things to take from those guys, ” said Anholt.

The victory was a pretty impressive feat considering White finished at the bottom of the standings with a 0-2-2-1 in round robin play and the States finished atop the standings with a 3-0-0-2 record heading in the playoff round.

Team White defeated Anholt and Team Canada Red 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals before knocking off Sweden in semi-final 6-1.