Some of the best up-and-coming, young hockey players will take to the ice in Windsor at the end of this year, for the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
On Wednesday, Hockey Canada, in partnership with the Ontario Hockey Federation, announced the Ontario city will host the annual tournament from December 29, 2011 to January 4, 2012. This will mark the sixth time in the 26-year history of the tournament that it will be held in Ontario.
“The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, as the first step of the Program of Excellence, is one of Hockey Canada’s most important events,” says Bob Nicholson, president and CEO of Hockey Canada. “We have no doubt Windsor will do a first-class job in hosting the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2012.”
The 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge will follow the same format as previous years – five Canadian entries (Atlantic, Ontario, Pacific, Quebec, West) will be joined by five international teams, with two groups of five teams. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, while the remaining three teams from each group will cross over for placement games.
The 27-game tournament will be centered out of the WFCU Centre, home of the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires, but will feature games in partner venues. The tournament host committee is currently working with communities in the Windsor area to determine which will host satellite games.
Ticket information for the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge will be released later in the summer.
Hockey Canada originally awarded the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, along with the 2011 tournament, to Winnipeg, Man., in October 2009.The 2011 tournament was a tremendous success, setting a record for single-game attendance with 12,060 at the MTS Centre for the gold medal game. However, with the recent awarding of an NHL franchise to the City of Winnipeg and True North Sports and Entertainment, Hockey Canada and True North mutually agreed for True North to put its focus on the return of the Jets and made the decision to relocate the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Since the first World Under-17 Hockey Challenge (then known as the Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, more than 1,100 NHL draft picks have played in the tournament, including nine of the last 11 first-overall selections (Ilya Kovalchuk, 2001; Rick Nash, 2002; Marc-André Fleury, 2003; Alexander Ovechkin, 2004; Erik Johnson, 2006; Patrick Kane, 2007; John Tavares, 2009; Taylor Hall, 2010; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 2011).
