By WAYNE SHIELS
Trey Markus and Austin Pacik, two ball hockey players from Warman, can call themselves world champions after helping Team Canada win gold at the 2024 U18 Men’s Ball Hockey World Championship in Slovakia.
Canada started slow with a 6-3 loss to Czechia in their opening game.
They built momentum in game two with a 14-0 win over Great Britain and followed that with victories over Switzerland 4-2 and Slovakia 5-3.
In their final game of the round robin, the team came from behind to tie the game before losing to USA 4-3 in shootouts.
Earning the one point for the tie was crucial as it placed them in a tie in the standings with Slovakia; and allowed Canada to advance to the championship game by virtue of having won their head-to-head game.
In the gold medal game Canada used what they had learned in the previous shoot-out loss to score early and often against the Americans in their 5-1 win.
Their victory made it a double header as the U16 Team Canada had earlier claimed a gold medal in a 6-5 overtime thriller against the host Slovakia team.