{"id":18796,"date":"2017-11-01T18:23:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T22:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18796"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:15:19","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:15:19","slug":"auroras-sikura-named-to-canadian-pre-olympic-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/auroras-sikura-named-to-canadian-pre-olympic-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora\u2019s Sikura named to Canadian pre-Olympic team"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

National collegiate scoring leader, Hobey Baker winner, Olympic medalist.
\nAll three are titles that could apply to Aurora\u2019s Dylan Sikura in 2018.
\nThe speedy forward was one of twenty six players named last week to Canada\u2019s roster for the Karjala Cup, a tournament used to evaluate players ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games in Pyongyang, South Korea.
\nJust three seasons out from leading the OJHL\u2019s Aurora Tigers in scoring in 2014, Sikura\u2019s hockey career has taken off with the Northeastern University Huskies of the NCAA, leading the league in scoring so far this year as a senior.
\nHe is expected to join the NHL\u2019s Chicago Blackhawks, a team that drafted him in the sixth round in 2014, starting next season.
\nSikura finished sixth in scoring last year, earning him Hobey Baker nominee honours for the top collegiate player, and is expected to contend for the trophy again this year.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that Dylan has the chance to compete with Team Canada,\u201d said Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan. \u201cHe\u2019s worked incredibly hard over the last several years to develop into one of the top all-around players in collegiate hockey, and to see him earn this opportunity is a testament to the effort he\u2019s put in on and off the ice.\u201d
\nIf Sikura is successful in making the national team, it would be a heavy blow to the Huskies, who will be competing in the hugely popular Beanpot tournament at the same time as the Olympic Games.
\n\u201cObviously we\u2019ll miss Dylan\u2019s presence while he\u2019s away, but as a program we couldn\u2019t be more excited for him.\u201d
\nThe Karjala Cup will run November 8 \u2013 12 in Helsinki, Finland, and will showcase Canadian talent against Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
\nThough making the tournament roster does not secure a spot in the Olympics, Canada general manager Sean Burke said the players certainly get an \u201cinside track\u201d.
\n\u201cWe are bringing together a group of players who are on our radar for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games as part of our ongoing evaluation process, with the goal of fielding the best possible team next February,\u201d said Burke in a statement. \u201cAs a management group and coaching staff, our priority is putting the best possible team together, and we will continue to evaluate every Canadian player that\u2019s eligible to represent their country at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.\u201d
\nSikura is just one of two NCAA players invited to the tournament, along with Bemidji State sophomore defensemen Zach Whitecloud.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National collegiate scoring leader, Hobey Baker winner, Olympic medalist.
\nAll three are titles that could apply to Aurora\u2019s Dylan Sikura in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Ta","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-13 15:18:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-02-12.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}