ROYALS’ JOE
HICKETTS EARNS INVITE TO HOCKEY CANADA’S WORLD JUNIOR TEAM SELECTION CAMP
Victoria defender
to attend national team selection camp in Etobicoke, Ontario.
For
Immediate Release
Tuesday,
December 1, 2015
Victoria,
BC- The Victoria
Royals are proud to announce that defenceman Joe Hicketts has been named to
Hockey Canada’s National Junior Team Selection Camp for the 2016 World Junior
Hockey Championships.
Hicketts
will join Royals’ Head Coach Dave Lowry, who was named the bench boss for
Canada’s World Junior Hockey Team in March of this year, and Head Equipment
Manager Matt Auerbach.
The
selection camp will see 30 players born in 1996 or later from across Canada
compete for a spot on the World Junior team. The camp will take place from
December 10th to December 14th in Etobicoke, ON and
culminates with a pre-tournament match against a team of Canadian
Interuniversity Sport (CIS) All-Stars. The annual tournament will be held in
Helsinki, Finland from December 26, 2015 to January 5, 2016.
Last
January, Hicketts along with Lowry, who served as an assistant coach, helped
Canada win the gold medal at the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championships. In
seven tournament games Hicketts recorded three assists to go along with a +3
rating and two penalty minutes.
Hicketts
recently took part in the annual Canada Russia Series where he recorded two
assists and a +2 rating over two games. The native of Kamloops, BC was also
named captain of Team WHL for Game 2, which took part in his hometown.
Through the
2015-16 season, the Royals’ blueliner sits second in team scoring with 28
points (2g-26a) in 27 games and is third in the Canadian Hockey League for the
most assists by a defenceman. Hicketts recently recorded his 137th
WHL point on November 20th to become the new franchise leader in
points by a defenceman and currently sits with 140 points (26g-114a) over his
junior career.
Victoria will welcome the Medicine Hat Tigers tonight,
before they wrap up their four-game homestand with a contest against the
Kootenay ICE on Saturday, December 5th. Saturday’s game is Joe Hicketts
Bobblehead Night.
Puck drop for both games are scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
