SCORE BOARD

WINDSOR, Ont. – Hockey Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Hockey League, announced Tuesday the game schedule for the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, scheduled for Dec. 29 to Jan. 4 in Windsor, LaSalle and Tecumseh, Ont.

The 27-game tournament will be centred out of the WFCU Centre, home of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, but will feature games at the Vollmer Culture & Recreation Complex in LaSalle and at Tecumseh Arena. In addition, two communities, Amherstburg and Essex, will host pre-competition games along with the three tournament venues.

aThe gold medal game will be held Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. ET and will be shown on TSN/RDS, Hockey Canada’s official broadcasters. All other games at the tournament, including both semifinals and the bronze medal game, will be available through FASTHockey at hockeycanada.fasthockey.com.

Beginning Thursday, Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. ET, 10-game facility ticket packages will go on sale to the general public in Windsor, LaSalle and Tecumseh. Fans who purchase their packages by Oct. 31 will receive the early bird price of $155 in Windsor and $136 in LaSalle and Tecumseh. Package prices will be $186.95 and $166.91, respectively, beginning Nov. 1.

Windsor: one pre-tournament game, five preliminary round games, two semifinals, bronze medal game and gold medal game.

LaSalle: one pre-tournament game, seven preliminary round games, ninth-place game and fifth-place game.

Tecumseh: one pre-tournament game, eight preliminary round games and seventh-place game.www.twitter.com/hc_wu17

In addition, season ticket holders of the Windsor Spitfires and LaSalle Vipers will have the opportunity to purchase ticket packages at a preferred price of $124 for Spitfires season ticket holders in Windsor and $112 for Vipers season ticket holders in LaSalle and Tecumseh.

Also available are group tickets for all pre-tournament and preliminary round games. Tickets are $15.99 each with the purchase of 20-39, and $15 each with the purchase of 40 or more.

The 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge will bring together the top players in the world born in 1995 or later. The regional under-17 program is the first step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence. Many players who compete at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge go on to represent Canada with the National Men’s Under-18 Team, National Junior Team and National Men’s Team.

Since the first World Under-17 Hockey Challenge (then known as the Quebec Esso Cup) in 1986, more than 1,100 NHL draft picks have played in the tournament, including nine of the last 11 first-overall selections (Ilya Kovalchuk, 2001; Rick Nash, 2002; Marc-André Fleury, 2003; Alexander Ovechkin, 2004; Erik Johnson, 2006; Patrick Kane, 2007; John Tavares, 2009; Taylor Hall, 2010; Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 2011).

For more information on the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, please visit www.HockeyCanada.ca/wu17, or follow along via social media at www.facebook.com/worldu17 or www.twitter.com/hc_wu17.