Tuesday, January 3, 2012

GARLENT’S PAIR LEAD ONTARIO TO PERFECT PRELIMS

Press Release

WINDSOR, Ont. – Hunter Garlent (Thorold, Ont./Guelph, OHL) scored twice to pace the offence as Ontario wrapped up an undefeated preliminary round at the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge with a 6-2 victory over Quebec on Monday night.

The winners of Group A, Ontario (4-0) will take on Russia in Tuesday’s late semifinal at the WFCU Centre (7 p.m. ET), while Quebec (2-2) will travel to LaSalle to meet Pacific in the fifth-place game (7 p.m. ET).

Mitchell Dempsey (Cambridge, Ont./Plymouth, OHL), Chris Bigras (Elmvale, Ont./Owen Sound, OHL), Bo Horvat (Rodney, Ont./London, OHL) and Stephen Harper (Burlington, Ont./Erie, OHL) had the other goals for Ontario, which finished the preliminary round as the only team in the tournament without a loss. Brent Pedersen (Arthur, Ont./Kitchener, OHL) added two assists and 10 different players recorded at least one point as Ontario moved into the final four for the fifth straight U17 tournament, having played for gold in each of the past four.

Alexandre Ranger (La Salle, Que./Baie-Comeau, QMJHL) and Yan-Pavel Laplante (Ste-Martine, Que./P.E.I., QMJHL) scored for Quebec, which needed at least a four-goal victory to have any chance at playing for a medal. Laplante’s goal was his fourth in as many games; he was the only player in the tournament to score in all four of his team’s preliminary round games.

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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