North Bay’s Colton Point was perfect as he stopped all 14 shots he faced as he and incumbent Carter Hart shared in a 3-0 shutout for the U Sport All-Star team over Canada’s World Junior Team in St. Catharines on Wednesday night.
Wednesday was the first of two exhibitions designed to help Hockey Canada evaluate players at its selection camp for the world junior hockey championship.
Because Canada invited four goalies to the selection camp all four played, with Point and Hart suiting up for the collection of players from Canadian universities and Samuel Harvey and Michael DiPietro taking the ice for the juniors.
See related story: North Bay product to vie for spot on Team Canada's World Junior Team
"It was interesting at first, just introduced myself then said 'oh, I'm playing for you, by the way,'" said Point about walking into the U Sports locker-room.
"They were really good about it. I think they knew what to expect.
"Welcomed us with open arms and really made us feel like we were part of the team for the night.”
See full game story: Point, Hart combine for shutout as U-Sports All-Stars blank Team Canada 3-0
Luke Philp, a forward with the University of Alberta, opened the scoring on the power play 2:44 into the game, scoring on DiPietro in Canada's net.
The other two U-Sports goals were scored with the Team Canada net empty.
"All the goalies were really good tonight," the former North Bay AAA Trappers netminder told the Canadian Press.
"One goal combined between the four of us and that's not really an easy shot to stop, the guy was all alone, low circle. I think all around the goalies are looking good so it's going to be a tight race for all of us.”
Canada and the U Sports all-stars will meet again on Thursday afternoon before the juniors take on Denmark on Friday in exhibition play. Final cuts to the 33-man roster are expected late Friday to get Canada's team down to 22 ahead of the world championships in Buffalo, N.Y., Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.
