After skate blows up, Ostapchuk moves up Canada's lineup

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

Follow| Archive

TSN SportsCentre Reporter Mark Masters reports on the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship. Team Canada practised at the Downtown Community Arena in Edmonton on Tuesday ahead of their opener against Latvia on Wednesday. 

Zack Ostapchuk started Monday's pre-tournament game as Team Canada's 13th forward. The exhibition encounter against Team Sweden represented a big opportunity to earn a bigger role at the World Juniors. It didn't start well.

"My skate blew up before the game so I wasn't using my own skates," the Vancouver Giants winger revealed. "I was tying them and the eyelets on one side just ripped off. It was an emergency five minutes before we went out there."

Ostapchuk didn't have a second pair handy so he ended up using the back-up pair belonging to teammate William Dufour.

"They fit good, actually," Ostapchuk said. "They were pretty similar to mine. We have the exact same size so it was perfect."

It's the first time Ostapchuk has ever dealt with a skate malfunction like this.

"It was a pretty crazy experience," he said. "I had to refocus. It was kind of funny. I had a good laugh about it. It's a good story."

Even better considering what happened next. The Ottawa Senators prospect helped set up the opening goal of the game thanks to some fine forechecking.

"I got around my check and saw the D-man wasn't going to get the puck," Ostapchuk recalled. "I tried to get a stick on it and I was lucky enough to poke it free. I was able to drive the net and go five-hole, but he [goalie Calle Clang] made the stop. [Nathan] Gaucher came in and tapped it in. It was nice to get on the board like that."

Ostapchuk played only seven minutes and 15 seconds, the lowest total on the team, but