The 2011 Canada Cup Floorball Championship comes to the Tait McKenzie Centre on the Keele campus May 20 to 22.
Toronto Maple Leafs alumnus Borje Salming will help kick off the event as part of the opening ceremonies on Friday afternoon.
Salming, who is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, will be in attendance at 3pm for official opening ceremonies. Following that, 60 teams in eight divisions will compete for their respective championships, from atom age youth players to the elite category.
Five squads will face off in the highest elite division: the Toronto Vikings, Hamilton Floorhawks, Ottawa Blizzard, NYC Floorball and Fight Club Floorball Montreal. Round-robin games will take place on Friday and Saturday, with the semifinals and bronze- and gold-medal games hitting the floor on Sunday. The championship game will be broadcast by Rogers TV York Region.
Floorball is a type of indoor hockey played professionally in countries like Sweden and Finland. In Canada, floorball is a popular high school sport and used in Hockey Canada’s Skills Academies across the country for dry land training. In December 2008, the sport received formal recognition from the International Olympic Committee and is slated for its debut at the Olympics in the 2020 Summer Games.
Admission is free for everyone throughout the weekend.
For more information on the event and the sport of floorball, visit the Play Floorball website.