SWINDON Wildcats’ young stars are set to test their skills on the world stage this week.

Swindon Wildcats players Ollie Betteridge, Floyd Taylor and Callum Buglass, along with Okanagan Hockey Academy players Toms Rutkis, Glen Billing, Luc Johnson, Ben Nethersell and Michael Stratford, who have all had ice time for the senior team this year, departed for Finland yesterday.

The host of young talent are joining up with the GB U20s squad as they prepare for the World Championships, which get under way in Estonia on Sunday, December 7.

The GB U20s will take on their Helsinki counterparts tomorrow in preparation of facing the Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Korea and hosts Estonia during the week-long tournament.

Eighteen-year-old Callum Buglass is eager to get on the ice ahead of the tournament and has his sights set on the top prize.

“I’m really excited and can’t wait to go and pull that jersey on again,” he said.

“It’s obviously going to be a really tough game because all the European teams are really well drilled.

“We have just got to see what we can do really and play our best.

“Gold is our aim, we have got to go for gold, but it is going to be an unbelievable experience and the other nations aren’t going to go in and just let us win games or take each other easy.

“Every game is going to be different and it is going to be a week of full-on hockey and I don’t think one of the guys in our team doesn’t want that because we all love hockey.”

Buglass and the other Swindon skaters met up with the squad last month and had the perfect preparation for the tournament as they secured a 10-0 win over Nottingham Lions, but the youngster knows they won’t have it so easy tomorrow.

“That was good because it was the first game together and we got to know each other,” he added.

“Obviously everyone is proud to put on the jersey and we came out firing in our first warm-up game as you saw from the score after the first period.

“We hardly get any ice time together, like other nations, so it is pretty tough but I think we are going to be fine.”

The call-up will mean that the Cats will be short of three first-team regulars for this weekend’s fixtures against Manchester Phoenix and Peterborough Phantoms as well as the mid-week match away to Milton Keynes Lightning and a tough home tie against Telford Tigers, but Buglass is confident the side has enough experience to cope.

“I think the Cats will be fine,” he added.

“They have a great group of guys and have got a few tough games but sometimes you can have too many lines and everyone is a bit cold going into the game but they will only have a couple of lines and everyone will be involved in the game.

“It’s going to be wicked going with the other boys from the Cats and in a few years time we’ll be able to look back on it and it will be great.”