Christensen to play for Canada at World Ball Hockey Championship
Prince Albert Raiders captain Justice Christensen is heading to Slovakia to join Canada at the 2025 U20 Men’s World Junior Ball Hockey Championship. The tournament takes place from July 2-6 at Zimni Stadion in Poprad, Slovakia.
As for Christensen’s journey to making the team, it all happened in less than a year. He played ball hockey for the first time last summer, but immediately turned heads among those scouting for future talent.
“I was in a ball hockey tournament last summer in Edmonton,” Christensen explained. “(Max Hildebrand) invited me onto the team, so I drove up and met the team there. It was my first time ever playing ball hockey. I think it was after the third game a scout with the U20 Canadian team had approached me and said they were very interested. In about early December we were all at the movie theatre and I took a quick look at my phone and I had gotten an email from Team Canada. From there I was just emailing back and forth and figuring out the process. Now that we’re getting closer to the tournament, I think we have a Zoom call booked in the next couple of weeks, and then I get to meet the team and all that.”
With last summer being his first taste of ball hockey, Christensen explained some of the differences between ice hockey and ball hockey that he noticed right away.
“It is definitely different,” he said. “The main thing would be the offside rule. When you cross the blue line in ball hockey, the offensive zone gets extended to the red line at center, so you have a lot more room. So if you’re on a powerplay you have a lot more space to run it. Shooting is quite a bit different as well. You kind of whack it, a bit different from a wrist shot. It’s all really fun.”
Canada opens their tournament on July 2nd against Czechia, followed by games against Slovakia on the 3rd and Switzerland on the 4th. The Canadians will look to defend their gold medals.
“It’s my first time representing Team Canada, so it’s pretty exciting. It’s also my first time going overseas to play sports. You want to be there to win and obviously have fun. It’ll be fun to go over there and try to win gold and keep the title in Canada.”
