Howden, Hunter bring home gold
Warriors forward, head coach claim hardware as Canada wins World Junior Hockey Championship
Brett Howden’s quest for a World Junior Hockey championship medal ended in early and disappointing fashion a year ago. This year, it was absolute perfection.
Howden and his Team Canada teammates took a 3-1 victory over Sweden in the gold medal game at the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships on Jan. 5 in Buffalo, N.Y., claiming Canada’s first gold medal since 2015.
“It’s crazy, it’s so surreal right now,” Howden said on TSN.ca. “I remember being here back in 2010 when my brother (Warriors graduate Quinton Howden) lost in the finals to the Russians, just to win it here with so many memories, it’s so amazing right now.” Interestingly enough, he has one of his biggest rivals in the WHL’s East Division to thank for it – Swift Current Broncos forward Tyler Steenbergen scored the game-winning goal against Sweden with 1:40 remaining in the game, Alex Formenton of the London Knights added an empty-net marker 26 seconds later, and the celebration was on.
“There’s much emotion, you try to stay composed because you never know what can happen, but when we got that empty-netter, you kind of knew that sealed the deal and it’s just such an amazing feeling,” Howden said.
The 19-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning prospect wasn’t the only member of the Warriors to come home with a medal from the event – head coach Tim Hunter returned as an assistant coach with Team Canada after winning silver last season. It was also his first World Junior gold medal.
After going without a point through the first three games of the round robin, Howden scored twice in Canada’s 8-0 win over Den- mark and then had a goal and three assists as Canada downed Switzerland 8-2 in the quarter-finals. He added an assist in Canada’s 7-2 win over the Czech Republic in the semi-finals. Howden’s seven points were good enough for fourth in team scoring – but just as impressively he posted a plus-minus of plus-9, third-best on the team and tops among all forwards.
The gold medal was the first won by a Moose Jaw Warrior since Brayden Point with the aforementioned 2015 team.