The past two years have been a whirlwind for former Flin Flon Bomber Connor Ingram.
He’s gone from riding the pine at the Whitney Forum to joining Team Canada at the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championship.
Ingram, 19, survived the team’s final round of cuts on Dec. 14, along with fellow goalie Carter Hart. The third goalie at camp, Michael McNiven, wasn’t as lucky.
Ingram was selected 88th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft. Ingram originally planned on playing junior A hockey and accepting a scholarship to a major American college, but changed his mind and joined the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.
Ingram is near the top of every statistical category for WHL goaltenders this season. In 24 games with the Blazers, Ingram has a 2.12 goals-against-average and a .935 save percentage.
In 2014, Ingram played two games for the Bombers as a backup after leading his midget team, the Prince Albert Mintos, to a national championship. Ingram played with current Bomber Brody Madarash on the Mintos and earned the top goalie award in the national championship tournament.
The tournament marks the first time Ingram has ever played for Team Canada internationally. The native of Imperial, Sask., is the only Saskatchewan-born player on the team’s final roster.
Ingram joins a roster full of top NHL prospects and junior stars, including first-round NHL draft picks Dylan Strome, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Tyson Jost, Michael McLeod, Julien Gauthier, Jake Bean, Thomas Chabot, Dante Fabbro, Noah Juulsen and Mathew Barzal.
Team Canada kicks off the World Juniors on Boxing Day with a game against Russia at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.
