SONNE LEADS WHITE TO INTERSQUAD WIN

OTTAWA, ON – John Tavares (Oakville, ON/Oshawa, OHL) had a hat trick but it wasn’t enough for Team Red, as it dropped a 6-3 decision to Team White in the first intersquad game of Canada’s National Junior Team selection camp.

White got off to a good start when Jordan Eberle (Regina, SK/Regina, WHL) drove hard to the net and put the puck past Red netminder Tyson Sexsmith (Priddis, AB/Vancouver, WHL) just shy of the six-minute mark.

Brett Sonne (Maple Ridge, BC/Calgary, WHL) made it 2-0 less than three minutes later when he took a great behind-the-back feed from Eberle and beat Sexsmith, but Tavares cut the lead in half before the end of the first period, sending Red to the intermission down by just a goal.

The White lead grew to three in the middle frame on goals from Sonne and Matthew Duchene (Haliburton, ON/Brampton, OHL) before Tavares made it interesting early in the third.

Tavares got things going at the 27-second mark to make it 4-2 and added his third of the game just 4:08 later to make it a one-goal game, but that was as close as Red would get.

Tyler Ennis (Edmonton, AB/Medicine Hat, WHL) finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Duchene and Sonne to push the White lead back to two, and Brayden Schenn (Saskatoon, SK/Brandon, WHL) rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal.

Canada’s National Junior Team selection camp will continue on Saturday, as Red and White face off in Gatineau, QC at the Robert-Guertin Arena. Follow all of the action at www.hockeycanada.ca.

The camp will conclude on Sunday, with the final of three Red-White games. Hockey Canada will then pick the 22 players who will make up the National Junior Team that will compete in the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship.