Rookie Oshawa defencemen earn silver with Canada Red at U-17s

A pair of rookie defencemen and a former Oshawa General coach are returning home with silver medals from the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Langley and Delta. B.C.

David Bedkowski and Ben Danford – both first year defencemen with Oshawa – and head coach Greg Walters – a former Generals coach who now runs the Owen Sound Attack bench – earned silver with Canada Red, who reached the final of the competition before falling 11-3 to the U.S.A.

Team Red, with 11 Ontario Hockey players in the lineup, finished the tournament with a 4-3 record.

“We liked the way we started the game; we were playing well. Their goalie made some big saves when we had a power play early on,” said Walters. “We thought we were playing a really good hockey game. We made one bad turnover and then the game kind of spiralled away from us.”

Canada Black placed fourth in the tournament with a 3-3-1 record following a 7-1 loss to Finland in the Bronze Medal game. Canada White finished sixth with a record of 2-3-1.

The silver medal is Canada’s first medal finish at the World Under-17’s since 2017 when Canada Red won silver in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, BC.