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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN's Mark Masters is with Team Canada and has the latest as the group plays in the world junior championship. The team cancelled its morning skate on Tuesday, but held a media availability at the Air Canada Centre ahead of tonight’s game against Slovakia. 

- Connor Ingram soaked up the atmosphere from the bench Monday night as the back-up goalie. "It was awesome. I was sitting out on the bench before the game and just watching the people filing in. It was an amazing thing. Even in warm-up, there are more people than we'll see in our junior careers almost." Tonight, Ingram will get the start for Canada. The native of Imperial, Sask., population 349, will have plenty of support in the stands at the Air Canada Centre. "I think about half of Imperial is here," the 19-year-old said with a laugh. "There are almost 30 of them around here somewhere. They're the only people wearing Ingram jerseys. I told my mom I'd retire when I found someone wearing an Ingram jersey that I didn't know, so until then I'll keep going." The most nervous fan tonight may be Ingram's mom Joni. "You should plant something on her so you know where she is all the time. That would be worth the price of admission just watching her." Ingram admits tonight's game will be unlike any environment he's played in before, but the Kamloops Blazer isn't letting that faze him. "It's just hockey, right. No matter how big the stage or how many people are going to make fun of you or support you, it's always just hockey and our job is simple. It's not like we need to learn a new system or anything like that. We just need to keep the puck out of the net. At the end of the day it's a simple game for us."

- Carter Hart allowed three goals on 17 shots against Russia and offered an honest assessment of his play afterward. "Obviously, I have better than that," the Everett Silvertips goalie said. After starting camp strong, Hart has now allowed six goals on 32 shots in two games. What is Canada's goalie consultant Fred Brathwaite seeing from Hart? "There have been a couple screened shots where I think he's kind of sat back in his net a little bit. But he's a guy who rebounds really well. We've seen him in Everett where he may have an off game and then he's steady the next night so we're not too worried about him. The best thing is we have two 1A goalies here and it's nice we can play either one of them." As for Ingram? "All the guys seem to like him," Brathwaite said. "He's a guy who comes into the room and is light-[hearted] and keeps guys on their toes and I think guys enjoy playing in front of him just because of the way he is."

- Slovakia's Erik Cernak made it clear he's not going to shy away from physical altercations with his Erie Otters teammates Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh tonight. Actually, he'll be trying to initiate some contact. "I want to hit them," the defenceman said with a laugh. Has he told them that? "Yeah, before my practice today." Apparently Strome bumped into Cernak in the hallway outside the dressing rooms at the ACC. "He said, 'Take it easy tonight." Cernak's response? "No, no chance."

- Tyson Jost opened the scoring for Canada on Monday and now has four goals in four games dating back to the pre-tournament schedule. The University of North Dakota forward, who considers Jonathan Toews his role model on and off the ice, may hear some familiar trash talk tonight. Jost's teammate in North Dakota, goalie Matej Tomek, is on the Slovak roster. Tomek won't start tonight, but he will give his teammates some insight on how to get under the skin of the Colorado Avalanche prospect. "He says he's the next Jonathan Toews, but we give him a hard time back home and say he's not anything like that so we'll see tonight I guess," Tomek said with a laugh. Due to injury and coaching decisions, Tomek hasn't played an NCAA game yet, but he has become close with Jost, who likes to get in extra work before practice. "Me and him always go out together early in the mornings and I shoot on him," Jost said. Another NCAA goalie, Adam Huska from the University of Connecticut, is expected to start for Slovakia. 

- Jost and linemates Nicolas Roy and Julien Gauthier have produced consistently since being put together before the first pre-tournament game. "The chemistry keeps getting better and better," Jost said. "We're creating a lot of turnovers off the forecheck and our down-low play is really good as well, so we got to keep that going." Jost is enjoying playing alongside Canada's biggest forwards. Gauthier, who stands 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, was raised in a family of bodybuilders. "You see him in the dressing room and he looks like a bodybuilder," Jost said. Meanwhile, Roy is 6-foot-4, 203 pounds. "They're huge and it opens up a lot of ice. I'm the little guy on the line so I just try and buzz around. I'm good down low and can create some plays for them too." Mathew Barzal won't soon forget his first handshake with Roy. "He's like a bear, he's got a bear-grip on him," the Islanders prospect said with a laugh.

- Roy and Gauthier are both Hurricanes prospects and know each other from Carolina camps as well as from their games against each other in the QMJHL. Jost admits that sometimes he feels like the third wheel on the line. "Half the time I don't even know what they're saying on the bench because they're both speaking French," Jost said with a laugh. "Although sometimes I do know what they're saying, because I've gotten used to it."

- Canada's top power-play unit – Thomas Chabot, Strome, Raddysh, Barzal and Pierre-Luc Dubois – cashed in three times in Monday's win. "We have (assistant coach) Kris Knoblauch running it and we have a good power play in Erie and we follow the structure and do what we're told," Strome explained. "It's just hard work. I don't think Raddysh had a point, but he won five or six huge battles along the wall." Knoblauch is the bench boss in Erie where he coaches Strome and Raddysh. "We do some things from our team. There are some similarities," said Raddysh. "Back in Erie I play that role as well, just that touch pass guy or slot guy. I'm a guy who will make a quick play or get a quick shot." Head coach Dominique Ducharme likes how efficient the top power play unit was. "They were aggressive, shooting pucks and taking pucks to the net and winning races and battles. They're getting second chances and not having to go down the ice and break out again," Ducharme noted.

* Projected lineup for Team Canada tonight: 

Dubois-Strome-Stephens
Joseph-Barzal-Raddysh
Jost-Roy-Gauthier 
Dubé-Cirelli-Speers
McLeod

Chabot-Myers
Bean-Juulsen
Clague-Fabbro
Lauzon

Ingram
Hart