With the holiday season in full swing, most teenagers are enjoying some time off, however three Niagara IceDogs have sacrificed their break in order to represent their country at an International competition.

IceDogs Rookie defenceman Dougie Hamilton is currently in Timmins, ON competing as a part of Team Ontario, in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.  Through two games, Hamilton and Team Ontario sport a 1-1 record, having fallen to Finland 5-3 in their opener, before bouncing back to shutout Team Quebec by a 3-0 margin.  They will next take on Sweden on New Years Day at 7:00pm.

Team Ontario will be looking to finish in the top two in Group A in order to move to the Semi-Finals on January 3rd, and hopefully to the Gold Medal game after that which will close the tournament on January 4th.

Meanwhile in Saskatchewan, a pair of IceDogs are taking part in the IIHF World Junior Championships, with first year IceDogs goaltender Petteri Simila being a part of the Finnish team, while Alex Pietrangelo is helping lead Team Canada.

Simila has yet to see action for Finland, having been on the bench backing up Finnish starter Joni Ortio in all three on Finland’s games.  Finland has a big match up coming up against Sweden on New Years Eve, with Finland having the opportunity to finish as high as first or as low as fourth in Pool B.  With the top three teams advancing to the medal round, the results of tonight’s game will go a long way in determining whether Finland will be heading to the Medal or Relegation Round.

Pietrangelo on the other hand has helped Canada get off to a red hot start with Canada having won all three of their games by a combined margin of 30-2.  Pietrangelo has been a big part of Canada’s success, as he is tied for the team lead in points with eight and leads the team with six assists.  Pietrangelo has also played a big role in helping Canada’s powerplay to a 54% success rate.  Canada will take on the United States tonight with first place in Group A on the line and along with it a bye to the Semi-finals on January 3rd.  The loser of the game will have to take part in a Quarterfinal match-up on January 2nd.  The Gold Medal game for the IIHF World Junior Championships will then take place on January 5th at 8:00pm.

Both the Sweden vs. Finland game (2 pm) and the Canada vs. US game (8 pm) will be broadcast on TSN and those fans coming out for the IceDogs Annual New Years Eve game will be able to enjoy the Canada vs. US game on the IceDogs Video Screens following the Otters vs. IceDogs game, and during the post game skate with the players.