Prince Albert Comedian and XFM Co-host, Kelly Taylor attended the 2019/ 2020 World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic. (Submitted Photo/ Kelly Taylor)

By Ronald Quaroni

Fans Abroad

‘You couldn’t script a better tournament’: P.A. comedian looks back on World Juniors

Jan 7, 2020 | 3:00 PM

While many Canadians took in the World Juniors through their big screens, a Prince Albert man was able to catch the experience live and in person.

Comedian and XFM Morning Co-host, Kelly Taylor made time to perform in front of a crowd of 800 Canadian fans in the Czech Republic and then watched some of the most exciting hockey he’d ever seen.

“You couldn’t script a better tournament for Canada. To lose to the Russians (in the round robin), not even lose, get blown away and have arguably their two best players go down and come back and then (goalie Joel) Hofer comes up shuts the door and wins goalie of the tournament,” Taylor said. “Then to be down 3-1 in the third period and come back, you couldn’t have scripted a more exciting tournament. It was unbelievable.”

Taylor said the spirits in the stands were good-natured. During the final game he said Russian and Canadian fans exchanging pins and scarves.

“It’s cool in the sense that it’s not your standard, ‘you hate your rival game’ — everyone’s really friendly,” Taylor told paNOW.

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He did note the Czech fans were a bit more active during play.

“Canadians will watch the game intently and cheer when something happened, but the Czech’s they don’t watch a hockey game like that. They cheer all game long, they don’t wait for something to happen,” he said

The trip capped off Taylor’s hockey bucket list. He watched the Raiders win the WHL Championship in a game seven at the Art Hauser Centre and he also took in the Winter Classic at Mosaic Stadium.

He had a hard time choosing a favourite moment between his recent trip and his hometown favourites.

“I loved them both, but to be from Prince to watch game seven, I wouldn’t even want to compare. They were both awesome,” he said.

This being his second World Junior’s, Taylor hopes he can compare this gold medal to others in the future.

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Ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni