The last two games Canada has played have been amongst the best hockey games I have ever, ever seen.
The game vs the Americans is one that will live in infamy. Down 3-0 to the Yanks, Canada's John Tavares scored twice to bring the game close, including one of the sweetest goals you will ever see;
To top that off the Canadians completed the comeback by winning 5-4!
I watched the comeback start with Oliver next to me, and the crowd noise (not to mention his father's irrational exuberance) initiated a heretofore unseen spasm of unfettered joy from him. He squealed with delight, and then shouted 'Yes'! - the first time we have ever noted that word escape his lips! Lets just say that all things considered- at least for Oliver's dad, winning the game was merely tasty icing on that awesome cake.
The game had many claiming it as the best world jrs game they'd ever seen. That is until Canada played Russia in the next round!
Canada took leads of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, and 4-3 before falling behind 5-4 with only minutes to play. Cue John Tavares...
He wins the battle along the boards, and feeds a backhand pass towards the net, it's blocked ineptly by the Russian defender and Jordan Eberle (a Joey Mullen clone if ever I saw one) makes the nifty backhand goal to save the day with only 5.4 ticks on the clock left.
So. Awesome.
Next up the Swedes, who have an excellent club backstopped by Jacob Marcstrom, a guy who may be the best Swedish goalie since Lundqvist or Pelle Lidstrom, and anchored by two awesome defenders in the goliath Viktor Hedman, and the tournaments leading scorer on defense (and Severed Heads prospect) Erik Karlsson.
At forward they are nothing short of lethal. Moller, Tedendby, Backlund, and the super skilled Magnus Svensson-Paajarvi will key their attack.
Lest anyone think this will be a cakewalk, the Swedes pounded those self-same Russians 5-0 earlier - the same Russian squad we needed a miracle goal and a shoot-out to beat.
Game starts at 5:00 Mtn time on TSN.
4 comments:
Ya Canada!!! Gold again - what a feeling!
These kids keep looking younger and younger every year. But the gold is a nice touch.
Something of an anti-climax given how amazing the two prior games were. I never felt like the Swedes were seriously threatening to take over, as rush after rush was dissipated either in the neutral zone or after delivering a single shot.
Nor did Tokarski have to be on his game anywhere near the same way he did in the two prior. No odd man rushes I can recall, no streaking wingers with a full view of the net to unleash bombs off the wing, nobody camped out in the slot to whack at rebounds. All in all a pretty routine evening for him.
Still, Gold is Golden, and I shouldn't rain on their parade too much given they won the war.
I THINK HODGSON [TOURNAMENT POINTS LEADER] GOT OVERSHADOWED BY HIS SWEET PASSES TO TAVARES...
BUT NEXT YEAR WILL IT BE BE 6?
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