Teams from Canada – the cradle of ice hockey – are not as successful at the Christmas International Tournament of Hockey Amateurs as their national team does at World Championships and Olympics. And most probably the reason for that lies in considerable yearly roster rotation. Nonetheless, the team from North America always manages to look eye to eye with Belarusian fans and be a success among spectators in Minsk.

Last time Canadians took part in Christmas Cup in 2010 and finished third in their group with spectacular game displays and a win against a grand rival – team Russia.

The team player-and-manager Kerrie Goulet said: “Unfortunately we did not manage to take part in the tournament in January 2011. And now we are looking forward to coming to Minsk once again. We have some good players, so we hope to be proud of Canada representatives at this event”.

This year the roster of the team includes several ice hockey players with past NHL experience and namely Darryl Shannon whose long professional carrier list includes such clubs as “Toronto Maple Leafs”, “Montreal Canadiens” and “Buffalo Sabres”.