Team Canada's defence, including Madison Bowey, turns in a 'good full 60' minutes in first exhibition game

With an odd number of players on the back end for their game on Saturday night, it was all about defensive recovery and cost containment for Team Canada defencemen such as Madison Bowey.

Team Canada rolled seven defencemen throughout a 10-3 exhibition game/glorified scrimmage against the CIS Toronto Selects at Mattamy Athletic Centre, which made for some hairy moments. In a setting where any nit might be picked, one vignette that stuck out was Bowey getting his skate in the way of a cross-ice feed on a 2-on-1, late in the third period when the score was well out of reach.

"To make this team, that's what you have to be ready to do," the Kelowna Rockets captain said. "Two-on-ones, you have to read it as best you can and that's what I try to do.

"That's really what part of being a world-class player means," the 19-year-old added, hopefully. "You have to adjust and get used to your pairings, — or, as forwards, your lines — quicker than normal. It's not too hard."

Bowey's goal 6:23 into the third was the first of three on the night from defencemen, with fellow Western Leaguers Dillon Heatherington and Travis Sanheim also getting in on the fun. The group had some hiccups but none of the septet looked out of place. Sanheim was victimized on a 2-on-1 goal in the second period, but also showed great speed later in the period by negating an odd-man rush that resulted from his errant pass being intercepted.

"We wanted to play with seven and it's not easy to have chemistry right away," coach Benoit Groulx said. "We turned the puck over here and there and I thought our turnovers were more about lack of communication or lack of knowing, right away, what we want to accomplish. But overall I thought our defencemen were okay."

Bowey, a Washington Capitals signing, is due to team up with incumbent blueliner Josh Morrissey in Kelowna after the world junior following a WHL blockbuster trade with Prince Albert. One can only read so much into that, but it could help with the challenge Team Canada faces in fostering the chemistry that is an inevitable X-factor at the world junior. It also helps Bowey's cause that he's had the experience of being captain with the Rockets, one of the rare major junior teams that only reloads instead of periodically rebuilding.

"He's a great two-way defenceman and we're pretty excited that we might play together," Bowey said of Morrissey. "He can definitely put up numbers, as he has done in the previous years. He's a pretty exciting player to watch and it's huge to get a guy like that.

"We have a pretty special group in the dressing room," Bowey said of the Rockets. "We really are a band of brothers, which is huge for every team."

On the whole, the players seemed glad to have a real game behind them, such as it was. (The Selects were drawn from the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, Ryerson Rams and York Lions, who combined have a combined 21-23-3 record in the Ontario university league, which is generally the most watered-down of the three men's hockey conferences within Canadian Interuniversity Sport.)

The big takeaway was that Team Canada kept its foot on the gas, which was what Groulx wanted to see.

"We played a good full 60," Bowey said. "It was good to finally get on the ice and get used to each other."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.