de Gray helps bring back the gold

BRAMPTON, Ont. – Less than 24 hours after helping Canada win gold at the summer under-18 Junior World Cup, Brampton Battalion defenceman John de Gray was back home reliving the experience.rrIt was great,” de Gray said by telephone shortly after returning to Toronto on Monday. It was an awesome experience.rrThe night before the game I realized that there was nothing more I could ask from this. I had the chance to play for Canada and win a gold medal. I think we all felt the same way.”rrde Gray, a 17-year-old from Markham, Ont., was one of six Ontario Hockey League players on the 22-man Canadian squad which defeated the Czech Republic 5-3 Sunday in the final at Piestany, Slovakia. Canada has won the summer under-18 tournament nine times in the last 10 years.rrThe Canadians prevailed in the final despite being shorthanded for much of the opening period.r rWe were penalized a lot in the first period,” said de Gray. We had two guys get 10-minute misconducts for checking from behind. But we had a strong defence and we all killed penalties, so it didn’t matter who the coaches sent out there.rrWe knew as players that we had to be disciplined and we couldn’t go at guys like we normally would in junior. We knew that even playing that way we’d still get calls against us.rrBut we knew we had to take the crowd out of the game and score early. It was a pretty intense game. Their fans were making a lot of noise.”rrde Gray said that Canada’s first meeting with the Czechs, a 1-0 shootout loss in an exhibition game Aug. 7, provided a dose of reality.rrIt was our first game and we were all pretty tired, since we’d arrived the day before. Even though we lost I thought we played really well and dominated most of the game. We just couldn’t put the puck in the net. We weren’t too concerned, but we looked at it as a bit of a wakeup call. We knew we had to bring our best game all the time or we could lose.” rrCanada cruised through the divisional round-robin portion of the tournament, beating Switzerland 5-3, Sweden 4-0 and turning back the Czechs 6-2. The Canadians then beat Finland 3-2 in a semifinal.rrWe scored first in every game and we never trailed,” said de Gray. That was part of our game plan. It was easier to get a good jump, get some goals and get the momentum on our side.”rrde Gray, who had two goals and eight assists for 10 points in 53 games in his rookie OHL season in 2004-05, collected two assists in the tournament, with both coming on the power play.rrI started on the first power-play unit in most of the games. I really liked it, and it gave me a lot of confidence. I hope I get a chance to do that with the Battalion, too.”rrde Gray’s leadership ability was acknowledged by the Canadian coaching staff, which named him one of four alternate captains.rrI was pretty excited about it, but to be honest all the guys on our team were leaders. If they weren’t loud guys in the room getting the team motivated, they were leading by example. We were all focused and determined. It was a real honour.”rrde Gray, who played for Ontario in the World Under-17 Challenge in January, said he thinks the under-18 squad could form the nucleus of a future Canadian junior team.rrWe had some strong players who will eventually make the jump to the national junior team. We had strong forwards and defence, and our goaltending was amazing.”rrde Gray is the fourth member of the Troops to earn a gold medal at the summer under-18 tournament. Battalion head coach Stan Butler guided a squad that included defencemen Tyler Hanchuck and Jay Harrison to a championship in the Czech Republic in 1999, and centre Jay McClement helped earn gold in Slovakia in 2000.r