Riders' Juell heading to World Juniors

It was a former Cedar Rapids RoughRider playing hockey on the world junior stage last year. It'll be a current one doing it this year.

Winger Rasmus Juell will represent Norway at the Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championships later this month in Buffalo, N.Y. The team's first game in the preliminary round is Dec. 26 against Sweden.

University of Denver sophomore defenseman Matt Donovan, who played two seasons in Cedar Rapids, won gold with the United States last year. 

"I'm very excited," Juell said.

The 19-year-old joined the RoughRiders just before the start of the season. He played Midget hockey for Belle Tire in Detroit in 2007-08 and spent the past two seasons playing in Sweden.

He has committed to play college hockey at Northeastern. 

"I like smaller rinks like (this)," Juell said. "I think the hockey is more fun to play here than in Europe."

The RoughRiders play Thursday and Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich., against 

USA Hockey's U-17 (Thursday) and U-18 (Friday) teams.