For most kids growing up in Canada, especially Saskatchewan, the childhood dream is pretty cut and dried: to play hockey on the world stage, to be a leading scorer and to win a gold medal.For Lampman's Zach Paxman, all three of these goals have already been realized.Paxman spent 16 days in Prague, Czech Republic, as well as several other European cities, between August 1-16, taking part in the Czech Hockey Challenge Cup.The Czech Challenge is an annual hockey tournament and series of European tours. This year's challenge, the 16th annual, ran from Aug. 10-14 in Prague.Each year, the Polar Bears Hockey Tour, organized by Azorcan Global Tours, sends hockey teams from Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, to take part in the Czech Challenge, and organizes tours around Europe, specified by each team.So then, how, you ask, did a young hockey player from Lampman end up playing for an Edmonton-based team in Prague?Paxman's journey began when he and his AAA Team Sask hockey team attended a tournament in Edmonton. A couple of Paxman's teammates from Regina impressed the Edmonton coach so much so that he invited them to join the Polar Bears team in the Czech Republic.Soon after, the Regina boys asked their friend Zach if he wanted to go too. And the rest is history.Paxman's tour began in Frankfurt, Germany on Aug. 1 and took him to four other German cities: Wurzburg, Rothenburg, Munich and Fussen; Vipiteno, Bolzano, Verona, Padova and Venice in Italy; Linz, Austria; Prague, Nizbor and Plzen, Czech Republic; and finished up back in Frankfurt on Aug. 16.During the actual tournament, the Edmonton Polar Bears played teams from Calgary, Latvia, Austria, Czech Republic and two teams from Poland.Paxman, who was teamed up with fellow 1996-born players, scored 20 points in the tournament, 10 goals and 10 assists, to help his team win the gold medal."It felt amazing. It was really fun," said Paxman about the success he and his team had. Although quick to point out that the success wasn't all owed to himself, the Lampman product did admit that his line was dominant throughout the tournament.While in Italy, the Polar Bears played an exhibition game against the Italian national team. Despite being the best young hockey players in Italy, Paxman's team made quick work of them too, winning 10-3.All-in-all, Paxman said the team spent about nine days playing hockey, including practices, and during the remaining seven days, they toured historical sites and old buildings and took in the central European culture, including strange new foods."We had a lot of different food, but mainly we had a lot of pork. It was weird," Paxman laughed. "Pork, pasta and pizza seem to be their favourite things."Off the ice, the teams from various parts of the world were given some time to get to know each other, although this was hampered by one small problem: "There was a party on the very first day of the tournament that all of the teams went to, where we could kind of bond. It was hard though, because most of the teams spoke different languages," said Paxman.Still, Paxman learned a lot on the ice about the way European teams play the game."They didn't really hit a lot, they played more of a technical game ... they have a lot of speed over there," he said.Asked how the experience is going to help him improve his game heading into the 2010-11 season with the TS&M AA Bruins, Paxman said his speed-game will be much improved after having played against shifty European players.
