With a 4-3 overtime win over Slovakia on Monday night, Canada’s World Junior Championship team is two wins away from claiming gold for the 20th time in tournament history.
Leading the team from behind the bench is head coach Dennis Williams.
Williams hockey journey has spanned across North America as both a player and coach. It even included a brief stop in Cambridge at the end of his playing career.
During the 2001-2002 season, Williams donned the black and yellow of the Hornets. After playing five games with the Odessa Jackalopes of the Central Hockey League, the Stratford native returned to his home province and put up 18 points in 12 games, potting four goals and adding 14 helpers.
He also suited up for the Waterloo Wolves minor hockey program as a youngster and the Stratford Cullitons in junior B before embarking on a four-year career at Bowling Green State University.
When the final horn sounded on his career in Cambridge, his journey into coaching began. First, he returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant coach in 2002-2003.
Stops at Utica College, Neumann College, the University of Alabama-Huntsville and back to Bowling Green State as the head coach followed.
He then jumped into the junior ranks with the Amarillo Bulls of the North American Hockey League and the Bloomington Thunder of the United States Hockey League, before arriving at his current stop as the head coach of the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League.
Williams has tasted gold before, serving as an assistant coach during the 2022 summer World Juniors that was made up after a COVID cancelled Christmas time edition.
Now he looks to bring home the ultimate prize as the main man in charge.
And if Canada can accomplish the feat, Cambridge will have played a small role in the story.
