NORTH DELTA — One of Canada’s brightest hockey prospects will be bringing gold home to North Delta following a dramatic 5-4 win over Russia in Monday’s IIHF World Junior Championship finale in Toronto.

Although Nic Petan, 19, was held off the scoreboard in that game, the Western Hockey League star was happy to be part of the world’s best junior hockey team.

Petan was a member of last year’s World Junior team in Sweden and, despite scoring four goals and adding a helper there, the forward was disappointed after the Canadian team was blown out by Finland 5-1 in the semis.

His mother, Rosanna Calla Petan, said Tuesday all he wanted for Christmas was the gold this time around.

“He definitely wanted to make this team (this year) and he had a definite mission, which was to bring home the gold,” she said. “And that’s all he kept saying. ‘Mom, I don’t care, I’m doing my thing and I just want that gold medal around my neck.’”

A second-round draft pick of the Winnipeg Jets in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Petan was already the toast of the nation Sunday when he helped Canada defeat Slovakia 5-1 by scoring a hat trick.

Rosanna said at that game somebody sitting behind her husband, Franc Petan, bought him a hat to throw on the ice after Nic scored his second goal. But Franc gave it back to the fan after Slovakia scored, considering it “jinxed.”

He needn’t have worried; Nic buried his third of the night shortly thereafter, the TV cameras capturing the proud papa tossing the hat onto the ice in celebration.

“(Nic) was pretty happy with himself and his team,” Rosanna said of the hat trick. “He’s a pretty calm, cool guy. They all stay pretty focused, even-keeled.”

The Petan brothers have long been hockey standouts in North Delta, where his older brother Alex, 22, paved the way. Alex now plays for Michigan Tech University in NCAA hockey.

Nic played minor hockey for North Shore Winter Club at the Atom level in 2004, continuing there for six years until the second year of bantam when he began getting noticed by junior teams.

Scott Blakeney, a scout for the Portland Winterhawks, saw Nic play in the bantam Christmas tournament in 2009 and knew then he was a special player. After the tourney, it was revealed Nic had played with a broken hand but hadn’t told anybody because he didn’t want to sit on the sidelines.

“So he played and that’s when I knew that if there was going to be a chance for Portland to get him, I was going to push as hard as I could push,” Blakeney said.

It wasn’t the easiest sell; Nic was all of five foot six inches and 110 pounds soaking wet, small even for a 15-year-old hockey player.

The Winterhawks looked at another bantam prospect named Anthony Ast in that draft, a prolific goal scorer who went on to play for the Vancouver Giants. In the end they decided to pick Nic, not only because he could score but for his ability to play at high speeds.

“He made the players he played with better,” said Blakeney. “It’s a hard thing to do.”

The gamble paid off. In the 2012-13 WHL season, Nic tied for the league lead in scoring with 46 goals and 120 points in 71 games. This, despite filling out to just five foot nine inches tall and 173 pounds.

Blakeney said Nic is “money” around the net and has a natural instinct for burying the puck. And although he’s smaller than other players, the scout said Nic is destined to play in the NHL.

The key will be to keep him at his natural position at centre. Blakeney said he’s not a natural winger so when Canada had him playing right wing with Connor McDavid and Curtis Lazar against Russia in the finals, he struggled a bit.

“But when they moved him back in the middle that’s where he makes magic happen. He’s a kid you just can’t hit.”

amacnair@thenownewspaper.com

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