The Niagara IceDogs will have a pair of players shooting for Gold at International Tournaments in the next two days, with Dougie Hamilton looking for Gold as a part of Team Ontario at the World U-17 Hockey Challenge tonight (Monday) in Timmins and Alex Pietrangelo going for Gold at the World Junior Championships on Tuesday night in Saskatoon.  Both Ontario and Canada will be taking on the United States for their chance at Gold.

Hamilton and Team Ontario have bounced back strongly after a suprising tournament opening loss to Finland, having won four straight games to make their way back to the final.  Hamilton has one assist in the five games and will be looking to follow in the footsteps of older brother Freddie, who helped Ontario bring home Gold last season.  If Dougie and Ontario can defeat the United States on Monday night it would give Ontario its third straight U17 Gold Medal.

Pietrangelo and Team Canada on the other hand have gone undefeated in the World Junior tournament thus far, having followed up 3 relatively easy victories to start the tournament with a thrilling come from behind shootout victory over the United States on New Years Eve, which gave them a bye to the semi-finals where they defeated Switzerland to do their part in setting up the rematch with the United States for Gold.

Pietrangelo has been a key part of the Canadians success, leading all defensemen in scoring and sitting tied for second in tournament scoring, only one point back of the tournament lead.  He also scored shorthanded to tie the game against the Americans which helped the Canadians into overtime and then a shootout, where they would eventually defeat the Americans.

If the Canadians can defeat the United States on Tuesday night, it would be the sixth straight Gold Medal for Canada at the World Junior Championships, something that has never been done before.  It would also be the second straight Gold Medal for Pietrangelo, who won Gold last year in Ottawa as well.

Both the World U17 Hockey Challenge and World Junior Gold Medal games will be broadcast on TSN, with the U17 game being broadcast tonight at 11:30pm on tape delay and the World Junior game being shown live Tuesday night at 8pm.