Dec. 31, 2017
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Over the semester break, Notre Dame senior captain Jake Evans (Toronto, Ontario), one of the NCAA’s leading scorers, helped Team Canada capture the 2017 Spengler Cup Championship in Davos, Switzerland.
Evans played all four games for Team Canada, which recorded preliminary wins over Mountfield HK, 5-3, and HC Davos, 4-1, on Dec. 26 and 28, respectively. Canada then posted a 5-2 win the semifinals over Mountfield HK (Dec. 30) and followed with a 3-0 championship game victory over Team Switzerland (Dec. 31). It marked Canada’s third consecutive Spengler Cup Championship and 15th overall.
Notes
- The Spengler Cup, which is widely considered the oldest invitational hockey tournament in the world, dates back to 1923 and the 2017 version marked the 91st edition of the tournament.
- Hockey Canada officials were using the Spengler Cup as an evaluation tool to help determine their roster for the upcoming XXIII Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea (Feb. 9-25, 2018).
- Evans was one of four NCAA players to make Canada’s Spengler Cup roster as he was joined the Northeastern duo of Jeremy Davies and Dylan Sikura as well as Boston University’s Brandon Hickey.
- The tournament marked Evans’ first appearance with the Canadian National Team (senior) and it was his first time suiting up for his country since playing in the World Junior A Challenge (2013/14).
Evans and the third-ranked Fighting Irish return from break this weekend with a Big Ten home-and-home series against Michigan. Game one will be played at 6:30 PM on Friday, Jan. 5 in Ann Arbor, Michigan (Big Ten Network), while the Irish will host the Wolverines at 3:05 PM on Sunday, Jan. 7 at the Compton Family Ice Arena (NBC Sports Network). To purchase tickets click here.
— ND —
Dan Colleran, Director of Athletics Communications at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).