Sarnia Sting forward Jamieson Rees says it was a dream come true to win the gold medal at the recent Hlinka Gretzky tournament in Edmonton.
Team Canada captured a 6-2 win over Sweden in the final, despite going down 2-0 in the first period.
Rees says they never gave up hope.
"Even though they scored, I still think we were controlling the play for most of the game at that point." says Rees.
"We just had to continue to play the way that we were playing, and good things were going to happen. They were going to tired, we were going to get bounces. The only thing that hurt us, I think, to start the game was penalties. But, it happens and you just have to deal with it and we just continued to play the way that we did."
He says he and his team mates were overjoyed to win it all.
"It was insane. There were 10 seconds left on the clock, and we're on the bench and we're all up and just thinking 'wow this is happening', I was a kid and this is what I dreamed of and it's actually happening."
Rees finished the tournament with a goal and three assists.
As a rookie, Rees finished the 2017-18 OHL season with five goals and 15 assists in 46 games. He's looking to build on that this season.
Rees and the Sting are now looking forward to the annual Black and White game in support of the United Way.
That is being held August 29 at Progressive Auto Sales Arena.