Turcotte leads USA Inline Hockey at Worlds

Darren Turcotte instructs the USA Hockey Inline National team during his first year coaching the club in 2006. File photo.

For the third straight year North Bay's Darren Turcotte is coaching the USA Hockey Inline national team at the World Championships that faced off on June 21st.

In Turcotte's first year, he led the team to an impressive Gold Medal performance. However, last season the Americans struggled finishing 6th.

The Turcotte-led Americans opened up the tournament Sunday with a big 9-3 victory over the 2007 bronze medal team from Germany in Bratislava, Slovakia.

This was a great start for our team," said Team USA head coach Darren Turcotte.

"We have a lot of new players and a very young team, so the win helps us settle in and hopefully we will continue getting better as the tournament goes on."

Turcotte has confirmed that he will not be back for a third season with the Skyhawks. The former NHLer has recently taken over the head instructor position with www.elitehockey.net hockey training facility set to open in July in North Bay.

"It is always a pleasure to be around such a high skill level of players and being able to see some of the best inline players in the world," Turcotte told BayToday from Bratislava.

"It is an exciting game that has many different systems and strategies and I am enjoying not only coaching but learning the game more and more every year."

You can follow the tournaments progress at www.iihf.com.