Saturday, January 05, 2008

Canada squeaks out a gold medal victory at the World Juniors

I could go on and on about how we Canadians dominate at the World Juniors and overall at world tournaments but I will approach this post game from a different perspective: we got lucky.
After blowing a 2-0 lead with less than a minute left, the momentum was all in favor of the Swedes who were taking it to us not only in the 3rd (I think they outshot us 14-3), but in the overtime as well.
Canadian goalie Steve Mason said post game that the Canadian team was feeling down after the 3rd had ended, and it showed in the OT. But it was Mason who held Canada in it with a great save only minutes into the extra frame. Canada goes up the ice the other way, dumps the puck in harmlessly and the Swedes easily took control of the puck in their own zone. The one Swede defender passed the puck behind his net and around to the boards to what seemed to be an unsuspecting 2nd Swede defenceman. The puck bounced off his skate right to Canadian Shawn Matthias, who used his size to crash the Swede goal from the right side a la Glenn Anderson. Swede goalie Jhonas Enroth stopped the shot but Canada's Matt Halischuk shoved in the garbage goal and that was it.
One little mistake by Sweden, who was poised to take it, and it ends up in their net.
Enroth played so well. He lay in the crease crying for several minutes after the winning goal was scored. I felt bad for him. I felt remorse for the Swedes. But at the end of the day, like the old cliche goes: it doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you get it done. And Canada, lucky as hell, got it done.

TSN has full game footage here.

Above photo is from TSN.

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6 Comments:

At January 5, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

My name is Jhonas
I'm lying in my crease

Gave up a stupid goal
Shame to the Purple Crowns

Come lie next to me
Pour some strong whisky
I am so whiney
Don't console me

My name is Jhonas...

 
At January 5, 2008 at 6:36 p.m. , Blogger James said...

Interestingly I thought that game was a great example of why no-touch icing is lame. The swedes would just not bother going back for a puck while a canadian player would just miss getting the puck. That's pretty much the reason for the tying goal. That and the total suckitude in the faceoffs by team canada.. Just scramble the damn draws already! fall over!

Ah well, a win is a win. Should be a good time in ottawa next year!

 
At January 5, 2008 at 8:24 p.m. , Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

Jin: at least his last name isn't Hoglund!!

Let me add to your song:

The Swede scheme didn't go quite as planned.
Canada has gold in it's hands.
Forsberg said "hey guys let's go all the way"
Unfortunately they thought he was gay.

The Swede Team is going home..
Team Canada is coming home...
The Ruskies are going home...
yah yah yah!!!!


James: Well no touch icing is the international rules. The Canadian player fucked up by icing it, and the Swedes, who were rolling, capitalized.

 
At January 5, 2008 at 9:17 p.m. , Blogger James said...

Yah, I know that it's a rule in IIHF, but it was kind of lame how the swedes didn't even move towards collecting the puck.. no-touch icing should be waved off if the defending team doesnt even attempt going after the puck!

 
At January 7, 2008 at 1:03 a.m. , Blogger Sean Zandberg said...

I wonder if we'll ever see that rule change in international play...or if the NHL will adapt that rule. Personally I like the race for the puck to avoid the icing.

 
At January 7, 2008 at 4:21 p.m. , Blogger Andrew Bucholtz said...

Agreed... I much prefer touch-up icing. No-touch just leads to a more boring game in general and some stupid scenarios in particular, such as the Swedes' tying goal.

 

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Waiting For Stanley was created in June 2006.