{"id":378229,"date":"2025-12-30T23:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378229\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T23:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:42:10","slug":"martone-sets-the-tone-for-canada-at-world-junior-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378229\/","title":{"rendered":"Martone sets the tone for Canada at world junior tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Porter Martone (22) celebrates his goal with teammate Tij Iginla (11) during their IIHF World Junior Championship game against Denmark in Minneapolis on Monday.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Porter Martone stood up and faced the music.<\/p>\n

The Canadian captain at the world junior hockey championship was issued a warning by a disciplinary committee for crossing the red line in warm-ups ahead of a feisty opening-night rematch against Czechia \u2013 the team that eliminated his country at the quarter-final stage of the last two tournaments.<\/p>\n

Martone then took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after sealing a 7-5 victory with an empty-net goal. Hockey Canada was also subsequently forced to apologize when the team didn\u2019t take part in the post-anthem handshake line.<\/p>\n

The 19 year-old from Peterborough, Ont., took full responsibility and promised to be better.<\/p>\n

That bumpy road now in his rearview mirror, Martone has found his rhythm and is poised to lead Canada into a New Year\u2019s Eve clash against Finland with first place in Group B on the line.<\/p>\n

Gavin McKenna scores hat trick, Canada cruises past Denmark 9-1 at world juniors<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOne bad day doesn\u2019t define a person,\u201d said star forward Gavin McKenna. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason he was named captain. Guys fall behind him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Martone credits his parents \u2013 Angela and Mike \u2013 for qualities that have often pushed him to the head of a pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was given this gift to play hockey, and it\u2019s what you can do with this,\u201d the No. 6 overall pick at the 2025 NHL draft by the Philadelphia Flyers said of the message growing up. \u201cIt\u2019s not always about the skill you have on the ice. It\u2019s what you can do to make people around you better and people in the community better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martone, whose dad was a fourth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 1996, had the opportunity to further hone his leadership qualities in the spring at the men\u2019s world championship watching Sidney Crosby go about his business.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson at practice at the world junior hockey championship in Minneapolis on Tuesday.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty crazy,\u201d Martone said. \u201cFive years ago, you never would believe it, right? You walk in that room, you see Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Marc-Andre Fleury, a bunch of great NHL players. They made me feel like one of their teammates. These guys are your idols. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you still stay in touch with them up to this day.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canadian defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson said Martone, who he\u2019s dropped the gloves against in junior and bunked up with at the NHL\u2019s draft combine, holds both himself and teammates to a high standard.<\/p>\n

\u201cLikes to speak up and hold others accountable \u2026 and taking accountability himself,\u201d Aitcheson said. \u201cYou saw in the media, that\u2019s not an easy thing to do. It shows his character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian assistant coach Misha Donskov said that character has stood out \u2013 especially over the last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an everyday-er,\u201d Donskov said of the forward playing this season with Michigan State in the NCAA. \u201cThat\u2019s what you expect out of your captain.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canada, which is craving a podium return after a pair of disastrous fifth-place results, has opened the men\u2019s under-20 showcase with three victories.<\/p>\n

The squad got revenge against Czechia and then bested Latvia 2-1 in overtime \u2013 an unconvincing performance versus an opponent that stunned them 12 months ago in a shootout \u2013 before thumping Denmark 9-1 on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Canadians will be looking for more payback against Finland after falling 6-3 in a heated July exhibition game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit chippy,\u201d said Martone, who has three goals and an assist at these world juniors. \u201cWe have that in the back of our minds, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a roster that includes Canadiens prospect Aatos Koivu, the son of former Montreal captain Saku Koivu, the Finns have given up a tournament-low four goals through three games and sit a point back in the standings heading into Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been saying that we\u2019re the dream killers,\u201d Canadian forward Cole Beaudoin said. \u201cWe come into every game and want to kill every team\u2019s dream. We\u2019re going to go into that game and play hard, play our game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd play the Canadian way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Olympic announcement <\/p>\n

Hockey Canada will unveil the rest of Canada\u2019s roster for the 2026 men\u2019s Olympic hockey tournament Wednesday in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Among the potential picks are two players still eligible to play at the world juniors \u2013 Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Schaefer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be exciting,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to choose the right guys.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unwavering support<\/p>\n

McKenna has dealt with plenty of noise this season for what has been an underwhelming performance \u2013 at least on the scoresheet \u2013 to date in his first NCAA campaign with Penn State. <\/p>\n

Once the slam-dunk No. 1 pick at June\u2019s NHL draft, the Whitehorse product\u2019s stock has been questioned in some circles, with the reigning Canadian Hockey League player of the year having registered 18 points in 16 games after putting up 129 across 56 contests in 2024-25 in junior.<\/p>\n

McKenna\u2019s teammates have consistently come to his defence whenever talk shifts to the draft, especially after a hat trick against Denmark put him atop the points race. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a tight group,\u201d McKenna said of the support. \u201cKnowing I\u2019ve got them behind my back \u2026 I really appreciate it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Porter Martone (22) celebrates his goal with teammate Tij Iginla (11) during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-378229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}