Majors stars looking for rare combination

By Aaron Bell

Casey Cizikas and JP Anderson of the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors came into this season looking to accomplish the rare double feature of playing in the World Junior Championship and MasterCard Memorial Cup in the same year.

Both players took another big step towards accomplishing that goal on Monday when they were named to the final selection camp roster for Canada’s National Junior Team.

The Majors are hosting the Canadian Hockey League’s national championship tournament in May but Cizikas – a centre with 13 goals and 30 points in 23 games with the Majors this season – and Anderson – their starting goaltender – are both clearly focused on making Team Canada right now.

“I’ve worked hard all season and it feels good to be rewarded with this honour,” Cizikas said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun and my family is really excited.”

The Majors’ stars have a leg up on some of their competition as far as familiarity with Canada’s head coach. Majors’ head coach and GM Dave Cameron will also guide the Canadian squad in the tournament this year in Buffalo, NY.

“Obviously you’re loyal to your guys but they made it on merit,” said Cameron, who was an assistant coach with Canada for the previous two tournaments. “They are two very exceptional players and are very deserving of the selection.”

Last month, Cizikas scored the OHL’s only regulation time goal in a 2-1 shootout win over Russia in the SUBWAY Canada-Russia Series. He said at that time that his good showing in that series helped give him some confidence about making the final selection camp roster.

“That was definitely one of the highlight moments in my career right now,” Cizikas said about scoring that goal against Russia – a shorthanded effort that tied the game at one. “I did what I had to do. I thought I played my type of game – I got pucks deep and I thought I did pretty well on face-offs – and basically I didn’t do anything that’s not in my style.

“I just tried to do things that I thought would catch the coach’s eye and hopefully they liked what they saw.”

Anderson allowed one goal on five shots during his half of the SUBWAY Super Series game against Russia and then turned aside three of four shooters in the shootout to help the OHL maintain their perfect record against Russia. The Russians won all four games against the QMJHL and WHL to win the series for the first time in history.

“It’s something that’s been in the back of my mind all season and it was really nice to hear from Dave that my name was on the list,” said Anderson, who leads all OHL goalies with a 2.17 goals against average and 16 wins in 19 games this season with the Majors. “It’s an honour and a privilege.”

On Monday, Hockey Canada and the CHL announced the 39 players that will participate in Team Canada’s final selection camp, which starts on Sunday Dec. 12 and runs through Wednesday Dec. 15. Canada opens the World Junior Championships against Russia on Boxing Day in Buffalo, NY.

Canada won the silver medal last year in Saskatchewan after a string of five straight gold medal performances. Three players will be back from last year’s team – all defencemen – including Ryan Ellis of the Windsor Spitfires, Calvin de Haan of the Oshawa Generals and Jared Cowen of the Spokane Chiefs.

“Thanks to Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, many of these players have already received the experience necessary to deal with high-paced international competition such as the World Juniors,” said Kevin Prendergast, Hockey Canada’s head scout. “The quality and skill of the 39 players invited to the camp next week is a testament of the hard work, commitment and development of all those involved in the Canadian minor hockey and junior hockey systems.”