CP names Team of the Year

THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canada’s junior hockey team won The Canadian Press Team of the Year award like it captured the gold medal at the 2008 world junior championship.
It came right down to the wire.
The Canadians beat Sweden 3-2 in overtime Jan. 5 in Pardubice, Czech Republic, to win a fourth straight gold medal for their country.
In a survey of sports editors and broadcasters across the country, the junior squad trailed the men’s Olympic eight rowing crew for Team of the Year honours until a late surge.
Although the gold-medal winning rowers finished with 36 first-place votes and the junior team with 25, the hockey team was bolstered by more second- and third-place votes.
The hockey team finished with 141 points to the rowers’ 139 in a tight race. The Grey Cup-champion Calgary Stampeders were third with 102 points a year after the Grey Cup-champion Saskatchewan Roughriders won the award.
“A toss-up for us on a number of fronts — could have easily picked 10 teams for these top three positions,” said Al Coates, sports editor of the Waterloo Region Record.
Wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc claimed female athlete of the year honours Friday while Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau captured the male award Sunday.
The junior team was young with an average age of just under 19 for what is considered a showcase of the world’s best 19-year-old players.