So 2pm came around pretty quickly today. Lanski and I took a few moments to print more gocanadago@ringette.ca messages and we were off. We loaded up the Volvo and ventured off to find a lunch location on our way to the area.
Turns out it’s quite difficult to find a restaurant when you don’t really know what you are looking for. Back home you just hop in the car and you’ll see a couple BPs, Kelsey’s not to forget Tim Hortons along the way. You don’t have to have anything specific in mind, something will just pop up. Without a clue as to what the popular restaurants are here we saw nothing. So back to Prisma it was... this is turning out to be a daily activity. They had a little café, we grabbed a bite to eat and then picked up a few snack foods and headed to the rink.
Our time calculation was a little off because we arrived just as the national anthems of the USA-SWE game were playing. Lanski was quick to set up and get cracking on the live stats for that game. Look at her go with the live updates on the non-CAN games. She is a star!
While she conveyed to the rest of the world what was going on in the game Dave (RC Executive Director) and I took the time to practice the play by play and color commentary on the game. We will not be as clever or witty as Jay Onrait was during Olympic mornings. But we will do our best to call the game for all of you at home. I will try to pull out a few Pierre McGuire comments (love him or hate him). If we sound awful you can just turn down the volume I guess. But then you’ll miss my exciting ‘Et le but!!!’ calls. It will be your loss in the end. LOL
The USA – Sweden game ended 22-0. USA took an early lead and never looked back. Here is the game summary.
Canada and Finland were up next. With the nerves now out of the way thanks to the exhibition game and day one of competition Canada was ready to go!
A few Finnish players stepped out onto the ice to start the warm up. Wearing white I thought to myself that Canada will wear RED again this game... no but wait they all take the ice and they too are wearing white! Slight miscommunication? I think so. This was all rectified and the Finns changed to blue. Point of interest – their pant and jerseys don’t really match, it’s not the same blue at all. Completely irrelevant I know, but I am here to report what I see. And I saw that. :)
OK enough about fashion, get back to the game Franski!
After the warm-up I made my way over to the fan section to get a good video of the pre-game ‘show’ they put on. But given that the lights stay low for the entire player presentation it didn’t turn out. But I did get a video of the anthem, a few fans and the first couple minutes of the game. I JUST missed the goal, turned off the camera a couple seconds too soon.
After the warm-up I made my way over to the fan section to get a good video of the pre-game ‘show’ they put on. But given that the lights stay low for the entire player presentation it didn’t turn out. But I did get a video of the anthem, a few fans and the first couple minutes of the game. I JUST missed the goal, turned off the camera a couple seconds too soon.
Exciting game! Lots of shots, big saves and amazing plays. Couple minutes in it was 1-0 Canada! Then it kind of went something like this 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4. Tied after 2.
We got an interview with Canadian official Steve Blacklock who has travelled to Finland for the event.
15 minutes of Zamboni time and we are back at it. 4-5, 5-5, 6-5, 6-6,7-6, 8-6, 8-7, 8-8. Only 5 seconds left… Goal! #18 FIN Salla Kyhälä. Finland wins. You might recognize that name as Salla played 2 seasons in the NRL with the Saskatoon Wild. She was also named league MVP in 2009.
The loss stings a little. It was such a captivating game, filled with emotions. I’m sure you could sense that even via Twitter and Facebook! Yeah we lost on the scoreboard, but there is a lot of positive that can be taken away from this. As Petey posted on Facebook ‘now we know exactly what we need to do to beat them’. We scored 8 goals against them, 5 different goal scorers, 8 contributed with assists. We dominated the play for the majority of the game. Lots of positives. Conquering Gold won’t be an easy task, but the team proved tonight that it is definitely within their reach. As our president said on Sunday, the Sam Jack trophy is coming back to Canada. We already bought its plane ticket! Just sayin’.
GO Canada GO!
Here is the game summary.
Interviews were done immediately following the game with Calgary’s Barb Bautista who had two goals and one assist in the game and Winnipeg’s Andrea Ferguson who had a hat trick in the game.
Tomorrow's schedule is a bit different.
CAN vs USA @1pm EET*
FIN vs SWE @4pm EET
You can follow the Canada game via :
FIN vs SWE @4pm EET
You can follow the Canada game via :
Good night!
-Franski
PS A special hello to my girls at Sport Étude RingTech from Nicolas Gatineau High School. See you all again in 3 weeks.
