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Price to represent Team Canada in the 2007 World Junior Championships by A J Bellegarde, Nativehockey.com correspondant Carey Price started out playing hockey as a defenseman. When he was nine years old, though, he played a game in the net. “As soon as I put on the pads, I loved it,” he says from his billet’s home in Kennewick, Washington, where he plays for the Tri City Americans of the Western Hockey League. Though Price can’t remember if he won or lost that first game, he says he was hooked from then on. Ten years later, the 19 year old from Ulkatcho First Nation (Anahim Lake), British Columbia is midway through his forth season with Tri City, and has become one of Canada’s best junior hockey goaltenders. Price has been part of Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence since he was 16. He won a silver medal representing Team Pacific at the 2004 Under – 17 Hockey Challenge, a gold medal with Canada’s Under 18 Team at the 2004 Junior World Cup, and another silver medal with Team Canada at the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Under 18 Championship. The Championship is an 11 day tournament that pits the best junior aged players from 10 countries against each other. Canada has won gold in the last two tournaments, with Western Hockey League goaltenders in the net the last two years. With so much prior experience representing Canada, Price is considered to be one of the front runners for a spot on the roster. “Whenever you put on the Canadian jersey, it’s an amazing feeling. You also have the expectation of winning,” says Price, a first round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Visit hockeycanada.ca for more information on the upcoming 2007 World Junior Championships or amshockey.com for more on Carey Price’s Western Hockey League team, the Tri City Americans
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