ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Three of Newfoundland’s top young hockey players have been busy this week in top-level competitions.
Bay Roberts native Dawson Mercer was one of the stars for a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League all-star team in a two-game series against a team from Russia; Mount Pearl’s Zach Dean has helped lead one of three Canadian entries into the quarter-final round of the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge; and Abby Newhook of St. John’s is suiting up with Team Atlantic at the national female U18 championship.
All three are forwards.
Mercer’s duties against the Russians are finished, but he can take some price in his play in two games that made up the QMJHL segment of the CIBC Canada Russia-Series. He finished with a goal in each contest — a 4-3 loss Monday in Saint John, N.B. and 4-3 overtime win Tuesday in Moncton — and was named the Q’s player of the game in the opener, which saw him score a goal and an assist.
The 18-year-old Mercer will now return to the Drummondville, where he is the Voltigeurs’ leading scorer and considered one of the QMJHL’s top prospects for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Dean, a 16-year-old rookie with the Gatineau Olympiques, will also be returning to the QMJHL, but not right away.
Dean and his Canada Black teammates will play Russia in a quarter-final tonight in Medicine Hat, Alta., after going undefeated in the preliminary round with three extra-time victories, two of them coming in OT and the other in a shootout.
Dean had four points — two goals and two assists — in the three preliminary games, with one of the tallies being an overtime winner against Team Canada White. He also scored one of
Canada Black’s shootout goals in a victory over the Czech Republic.
His two assists came in Tuesday’s 5-4 OT victory over the United States 5-4, with one of the helpers coming on Shane Wright’s game-winner.
Newhook and Team Atlantic were winless in their first two games at the national women’s U18s in Winkler, Man., falling 5-2 to Ontario, then ending up on the wrong side of a 3-2 shootout decision against Saskatchewan on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old Newhook, who attends Tabor Academy, a New England prep school and who is committed to Boston College, hasn’t had any points in Manitoba this week, but will get a chance to change that today in a matchup against Alberta.
She is one of Team Atlantic’s assisitant captains.
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