Alex Newhook of St. John’s probably took quite a bit of good-natured razzing in the couple of hours it took to fly to Boston from Edmonton the other day.
That’s because there were only four passengers on the private jet, three of those from the United States team which had just won the world junior hockey championship in Alberta. The fourth, Newhook, was on the Canadian team which dropped a 2-0 decision to the Americans in the final game.
All four — Newhook, Spencer Knight, Matt Boldy and Drew Helleson — are members of the Boston College Eagles NCAA squad, and the university had chartered the plane to bring the four back to the northeastern United States on Wednesday.
It was Knight who was the American goaltenders registered the shutout in the gold-medal game Tuesday night. Boldy, one of the Americans’ top forwards in the world tourney, is Newhook’s roommate at BC.
Meanwhile, the other player from Newfoundand and Labrador on the Canadian team at the 2021 world juniors — Bay Roberts native Dawson Mercer — is back in Chicoutimi, Que., to rejoin the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Sagueneens.
While Mercer will likely have to quarantine in Chicoutimi after travelling in from Alberta, Newhook won’t have to do so down in the United States.
But he will be busy, starting with appointments with the BC hockey team’s athletic therapists and doctors after injuring his shoulder in Canada’s final preliminary round game against Finland.
The damaged area was frozen when Newhook returned to the lineup for the semifinal against Russia — a game that saw him score 59 seconds in — and the final.
Newhook (three goals and three assists) and Mercer (2-4) both finished with six points in Edmonton.
Because of the lengthy Canadian team selection camp, which opened Nov. 17, Newhook has yet to appear in a game for Boston College this season.
The Eagles are 5-1 in the Hockey East conference so far, second to 9-3-1 UMass. BC is set to play New Hampshire today and Sunday. No word if Newhook will play.
A first-round draft pick (16th overall) by the Colorado Avalanche in 2019, Newhook was the Hockey East and NCAA rookie of the year last season.
The silver medal was Mercer’s second piece of world junior hardware, after winning gold with Team Canada at the 2020 world juniors in the Czech Republic.
Despite missing a significant amount of QMJHL playing time while attending the Canadian team’s selection camp, Mercer is still among Chicoutimi’s top scorers with four goals and three assists in five games so far this season.
He was selected in the first round (18th overall) of the NHL Draft by the New Jersey Devils last June.
Mercer collected four assists in Edmonton, but perhaps his biggest helper might have come in other ways.
His long-time friend from Bay Roberts, Luke Akerman, is in Chicoutimi where he has been given a tryout by the Sagueueens.
No doubt Mercer had a hand in securing that move.
Akerman won the St. John’s Junior Hockey League’s scoring title last season, scoring 28 goals and recording 61 points in 28 games for the Conception Bay North Stars.
The 19-year-old Akerman was not playing this season, other than a recreation skate here and there, because COVID-19 has shut down the city’s junior circuit.
Robin Short is The Telegram's Sports Editor.
