EURO CURVE

Euro Curve chronicles the latest international hockey news.

Team Canada edged Sweden 3-2 in overtime Saturday to take the 2008 World Junior Hockey Championship (their fourth straight gold medal in a row), capping an exciting two weeks in which we were treated to some of international hockey’s brightest young stars. Pardubice, Czech Republic provided a sneak preview of next years NHL Calder class as well as some 17-year-olds who won’t be draft eligible until 2009. Players like Brad Marchand, John Tavares, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, James van Riemsdyk, and of course Matt Halischuk became household names in what turned out to be a very competitive tournament.

The 2009 World Junior Hockey Championships will be held in Ottawa, Ontario and may break attendance records previously set in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2006. Three of the next four WJC will be held in Canada, and rightly so, as the tournament has become Canada’s March Madness.

In other European Hockey news:

– Slapshot.ch reports that Toronto Maple Leafs Forward Simon Gamache has been released and will join SC Bern of the Swiss Elite League. Gamache was seeing regular ice time with the Buds earlier in the season, but was sent down to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL back in November. He had two goals and two assists in 11 games with the Maple Leafs. Gamache is a former QMJHL MVP who registered an astounding 184 points back in 2000-01 for the Val d’Or Foreurs. The 27-year-old Thetford Mines, Quebec native will get another shot in the NHL again as he can provide a scoring boost to a number of teams.

For Illegal Curve, I’m Ezra Ginsburg.