Two Youth Hockey Players Taking Their Game to China for International Tourney

James O'Connor

Watertown youth hockey players Matthew Brown, left, and James O’Connor will play in a hockey tournamernt in Beijing, China. They are shown here with Head Coach and owner of the Boston MaxPro Jets, Max Gratchev.

Two young hockey players from Watertown will travel all the way to China to take on teams from around the world later this month. 

James O’Connor and Matthew Brown will lace up their skates to play for the Boston MaxPro Jets in the CCM Beijing Invitational tournament, where dozens of teams in a variety of age groups will face off.

O’Connor is a forward who will be starting seventh grade at Boston College High School in the fall. Brown plays forward and is going into seventh grade at St. Agnes School in Arlington.

The Jets will play other teams made up of players born in 2005 – 11 and 12 year olds. In the pool play they will take on Amur Khaborovsk (from Russia), Blackhorse (Canada), Unicorns (South Korea), Qiqihaer (China) and Shanghai Tigers (China).

The other pool features teams from the U.S., Canada, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When they aren’t on the ice, the team will be seeing the sights in and around the Chinese capital.

The Boston MaxPro Jets is part of the Boston Stars youth hockey program based in Somerville. The team is coached by Max Gratchev, owner of the MaxPro Jets, who was drafted by the New York Islanders and played in the American Hockey League (AHL) and Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in Europe.