Canada’s Future Hockey Stars Battle for Gold at “IIHF World Under-18 Championship” on TSN

Yesterday,

Canada’s
Women’s hockey team captured gold at the World Women’s Championship. In
January, the national Junior team did the same at the World Juniors. Will

Canada’s
Under-18 squad be able to follow suit?

TSN has live coverage of 4 games from the “2007 IIHF World Under-18
Championship”, as
Canada’s
best young hockey players head to

Finland to take on the best teams
from around the world in the 10-team tourney. TSN’s coverage airs April
17 to 22 and includes one round-robin game featuring

Canada, a quarter-final, one
semifinal and the gold medal game. These games will also be available
on-demand on TSN Broadband at www.tsn.ca following the conclusion of the live
broadcasts.

TSN’s Dave Randorf will call the action from the broadcast booth in

Finland
alongside game analyst Dave Reid. Rod Black hosts the coverage from the
TSN studios.

The “IIHF World Under-18 Championship” broadcast schedule is
as follows:

Tuesday, April 17 – round-robin:
Canada
vs.

Russia
at 12:30 p.m. ET

Thursday, April 19 – Quarter-final at 8 a.m. ET

Friday, April 20 – Semifinal at 8 a.m. ET

Sunday, April 22 – Gold Medal Game at 11 a.m. ET

This tournament is viewed by players as a precursor to the popular
“IIHF World Junior Championship” that takes place annually over the
Christmas holidays. In fact, over two-thirds of

Canada’s
current junior team players have suited up for the National Under-18 team at
some point in their international hockey careers.

While the inaugural “IIHF World Under-18 Championship” took
place in 1999,

Canada
did not enter the fray until the 2002 Championship. Team

Canada looks to
get back on the podium after failing to win a medal last year. Canadian
squads won gold in 2003 and silver in 2005.

The “IIHF World Under-18 Championship” kicks off a busy month
of national and international hockey coverage on TSN:

April 28 to May 13 – “2007 IIHF Men’s World Championship” –
TSN and TSN Broadband have live coverage from
Moscow,
featuring 12 games, including three preliminary round games involving

Canada, three
qualification round games, two quarter-final match-ups, both semifinals and the
bronze and gold medal games. Team

Canada looks to regain its form
after finishing out of the medals last year. The tournament features the
world’s top 16 hockey teams.

April 29 – “TELUS Cup” – TSN has live coverage of the
championship game from

Red Deer,

AB. The “TELUS
Cup”, considered

Canada’s
national midget hockey championship, features the six best midget-level teams
in the country facing off for the Canadian minor hockey championship.

May 13 – “RBC Royal Bank Cup” – TSN has live coverage of the
championship game from this annual National Junior A showdown. The
tournament features the top five teams from 10 leagues across the
country. This year the event is being held in

Prince George, B.C., marking just the
third time since the inaugural tourney in 1971 that
it is being held in B.C.