Home Sweet Home

This morning most of our players and parents are waking up in their own beds, to familiar surroundings and the usual breakfast. Coral can have eggs any way she likes them! But even though things are back to normal, they are different, because we've seen and done new things, met new people, and we have new experiences and memories of the HEAT in Finland.

Mission Accomplished!

The Hamilton Heat U14 team came to Finland to have fun, make new friends and play some great ringette. Today we fulfilled all our objectives.

The day didn't start out so well. Still excited about our win over Richmond Hill yesterday, we went into our first game today against Haukat from Jarvenpaa. They bombed us 7-0, for our first loss of the tournament. Nothing went right. Fortunately, it didn't matter much. Richmond Hill had only managed a tie against Haukat earlier, so we were guaranteed a semi-final berth.

In the semi-final, we played Tampere. This Finnish city will host the Worlds later this year. We scored first, but they made it 2-1 with 11 minutes left. With our goalie out, we managed to tie it with 14 seconds left, forcing a shoot-out for the tie-breaker. After the initial 3 shots, each team had 1 goal. In the fourth round, Tampere scored and we did not, so Tampere took the match and moved on to to the gold medal game. We would play for bronze.

The bronze game was a re-match with Haukat, the team that had drubbed us in the morning. We were resolved that this game would be different.

Haukat went ahead with 2 goals in the seventh minute. Just over a minute later, we made it 2-1. Then it was 3-1, then 3-2. We couldn't catch them, but we were determined not to let them get away from us. The first half ended 4-3.

Haukat made it 5-3 half way through the second. With just over 4 minutes to play, we narrowed it to 5-4. Then, with 45 seconds left in the game, we scored a power play goal to tie the score.

In overtime, Haukat got into penalty trouble. With 2 Haukat players off -- one for a double minor and one for a major -- Taylor scored the winner on a rifle shot.

In the end, we played two gutsy games as we bounced back from a disappointing performance at the start of the day. Tampere and Nurmijarvi played for the gold...we had played both of those teams to a tie in regulation earlier in the tournament. We can say with confidence that we were the match of any team in the tournament.

And that is an accomplishment:

• We were the youngest team -- all 12 and 13 year olds when every other team had at least one 14 year old, and most were mainly 14 and 15 year olds.


• We were the smallest team -- only 9 skaters, when many teams had 15 or 16 skaters. We were even more short handed when stomach sickness shortened our bench on Day 1.


• We hardly knew each other -- our first game as a team was on Dec 28 in Sweden. We had never played as a unit before that, yet we were playing against club teams

But the biggest satisfaction the girls had was getting to know each other and bonding as friends. Coming to appreciate one another's skills and talents, both on and off the ice. Learning some new things about ringette and seeing a new and interesting part of the world.

What a thrill for us all, and we get a trophy to bring home with all the memories and photographs. We can truly say, "Mission Accomplished".

Congratulations to our friends from the Richmond Hill Lightning who won their final game to finish 5th in the tournament. And to the Hamilton Heat Open team who finished 3rd in their division.

FLASH: HEAT forge BRONZE in Espoo

In a thrilling come-from-behind overtime win, the Hamilton Heat have captured the bronze medal in the 2010 Lions Cup tournament.

More details and photos to follow.

Big steps forward

Today's player posters are Sam, Coral, and Natasha:

Today, we awoke very early at 7:30 and everyone was healthy, no one was puking and it was a great omen that we were going to have a good day!

We all ventured down to the restaurant place to get energy for the game that lay ahead. The breakfast kind of sucked, but thanks to Katie we survived on peanut butter sandwiches and croissants. Our trainer told us to bring oranges to the game to improve our energy level even more! We ended up bringing 16 oranges to the change room but we only ate a total of maybe 5, so the rest are resting peacefully in the change room which is cold, dark and miserable! Once we arrived at the rink our cold dark miserable room smelt like bitter sweet oranges and sweat....what a combination!

Our positive attitudes and high energy levels (thanks to the oranges and a good nights sleep) made us very sucessful through the exciting, long, exhilerating game. We shut down the RNK team with a score of 3-1!!! After our amazing victory we prepared for the next game that lay ahead physically and mentally.

Sadly we did not finish first because our rivals Seiskat beat our other rival RNK by a big score to win first place over all. We had to play Richmond Hill for our first Round 2 game! But before we got to play our Canadian rivals we headed over to the lunch building, we got to eat shredded ham, shredded potatoes and salad some kind of a hash brown kind of thing. Which once again was not very good. We relaxed and filled our minds with positive and inspirational thoughts!

Then, it was Game On vs Richmond Hill! We fought hard. Our defence played strong and destroyed all in their path and the forwards released our cannons (we shot really well!). The final score was 2-1 for us! GO HEAT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the mall before the skills competition and we saw candles shining brightly to show respect and sorrow for the people who had been shot in Espoo. Erica and Darcy went to skills competition, they didn't win but they put their heart and soul to the test but they were tired because of a long day. We believe Erica came second in skating! GO HEAT GO!!! For dinner we ate inconsistant pizza! We decided to call it inconsitant because half the pizza was yummy but the other half was doo doo and gross! We headed to the bus and enjoyed ourselves on the peaceful journey back to the hotel knowing it was a great day that filled our spirits with happiness and joy! ..... By the way did we mention it was minus 20 today with no wind??!!!

Overcoming Challenges

Today's player post was written by Steffany and Erica:

WELCOME TO 2010!!!! Last night many of the players went down to the harbour to watch the New Years fireworks. After waking up, many of our players were feeling sick. One of the players had to sit out of the game today because she was throwing up while others were able to play. In our game [against Nurmijarvi...also known as Seiskat] we started off with a 1-0 lead. As the players began to feel the effects of the short bench, the other team caught up eventually making it 3-1. Late in the second period, we scored 2 goals to force a final score of 3-3. One player and one parent are still very sick and the others are very tired and struggling to stay awake. [Richmond Hill also had a sick player and one of the guides was sick...we think it may have been something served at last night's banquet? ]. But after a good night's sleep, we will all be prepared to face a good day of ringette and will strive for success in our 3 games and the skills challenge tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve Day

New Year's Eve Day

Today's player bloggers are Maddy and Sarah:

To start off our day we had a buffet breakfast in our new hotel. Coral had some problems finding a hard boiled egg. Every one she chose was a soft boiled. After that a few people went to Flamingo waterpark in a bus. Flamingo waterpark has three slides. It has a hottub and a water-polo section. We jumped off of high diving boards that were suppose to look like cliffs.

The people that didn't go to the waterpark went to Porvoo. Porvoo is the second oldest town in Finland. There was a guide who gave us a tour on Porvoo. She told us old legends about what happened in the town. We went into a coffee shop and had cake and chocolate.

After those fun events we went out in the city to do some shopping. Later on, some of the team went to the Ice Bar. It was really small, but it was still fun. At around 7:30 it was time for dinner. Dinner was in a fancy hall. It was a buffet dinner. For dessert there was cheese cake. It was good. There was lots of pictures taken during dinner and after dinner. When dinner ended the people that didn't go to the icebar went there instead of going back to the hotel . We couldn't go into the ice bar because it was to late and they didn't allow kids under the age of 18 to go in the ice bar past 9 p.m. So we came back to the hotel. At the hotel Coral did peoples hair in knots and bows tied together. Some people decided to get revenge on Coral by doing her hair in knots and bows, too. While we were waiting for the New Year to arrive we created many memories and bonded as a team. We waited and watched the clock strike 12 for the New Year to occur with many new resolutions, we now are very excited for our first game tomorrow in the 2010 Finland Lions Cup!!!

A day to relax and explore Helsinki

A great day today to sleep in a bit (especially for those who had trouble sleeping on the boat) and then see some sights. Some went downtown, some went to the historic village of Porvoo and some went to the waterpark near Vantaa.

Tonight we're going out for dinner, then bundling up for the New Years Eve events in the square. It's -13C right now!

The news is reporting an incident of violence in Espoo, the community near Helsinki where we played yesterday. No one from our team was in Espoo today. Sadly, senseless violence happens everywhere in the world. From what we've seen, Finland is a beautiful country filled with delightful and friendly people.

Highlights of Day 1 in Helsinki

EKS 6 - Heat 4 in a fun match

This afternoon we travelled to Espoo and the Laaksolahti Arena to play Espoon Keikkoseura C. EKS scored a goal in the first minute, but then we played for 18 minutes with no more scoring. EKS scored 3 in 5 minutes to make it 4-0, but then we narrowed the gap to 4-2. Eventually we got to 5-4 before EKS scored again and it ended 6-4. Originally, we were told it would be 4x15 minute periods, but it ended after 3. We wanted to keep going, as we thought we could catch them!

Our girls played with skill and enthusiasm. We had only 9 skaters and played 45 minutes against a team of 16 skaters, most of whom were 14 or 15 years old. The Finnish ref commented twice on the skill and sportsmanship our players demonstrated. Darcy counted 3 goals and an assist, and Taylor got an assist and a pretty goal.

After the game, we exchanged gifts and had a group photo taken.

First Day in Finland

Today's player post by Halli and Taylor will update you for yesterday and today, since we couldn't post easily while we were on the boat:

Yesterday, we checked out of the hotel, went shopping for a few hours and then went to the ferry. On the ferry, we had dinner and went to the Teen Club. We slept on the boat and arrived in Helsinki this morning.

Today was our first full day in Finland. It's been snowing all day, and there is snow everywhere. It started off with a horrible breakfast on the boat. Halli won 7 Euros on her first try in the slot machine .We arrived in Finland at 9:55 am Helsinki time. The bus we were on in Sweden went on the cruise with us and we got on it and went sightseeing. On the sightseeing tour we stopped at a church that was made out of rock, then we went to a musical memorial site and had a snow ball fight. We also saw the 1952 Olympic Stadium. At lunch, Halli and Katie ate at the market. Everybody else went to a restaurant arcross the street from the hotel. Katie was eating a banana outside and got attacked by a seagull the size of a small dog. So she chucked the banana at the seagull. After the attack, we had an exhibition game against a Finnish junior A team. We had 3 periods of 15 minutes each but it was supposed to have 4 periods. We lost 6-4 but thats ok considering they were older than us. The Canadian fans were given ginger cookies and gloggy. After the game we came back to the hotel to have dinner.

On board M/S Silja Serenade

After a day of more sightseeing in Stockholm, we've boarded the ship and we are now in the middle of the Baltic en route to Helsinki. More adventures and an ex-game vs a Finnish squad await us tomorrow.

Highlights of Heat vs Jarna/Ulriksdal!

Our Day in Stockholm

Each day of our tour, 2 players will blog on the day's events. This post about our day in Stockholm was written by Darcy and Katie:

Today was our first full day in Sweden, and it is absolutely magnificent.

To start off our day, we had breakfast and went on a driving tour of the city. Near the end of our tour we went to the VASA museum, which is a museum about the VASA ship that sank in 20 minutes in 1628. After the Vasa museum, we went down to Old Stockholm and our tour guide, Kirsti, showed us around and then took us to the city centre. We saw the royal palace and while we were driving away we saw the prince driving home. Then, we had 3 and a half hours to ourselves to shop, eat and see the city. For lunch, I had Swedish meatballs, which was amazing. I had trouble reading the menus so when we got our lunches it wasn't what we thought we ordered, but it was good anyways. Some of us went to Old Stockholm and shopped. We saw lots of hand-made Swedish sweaters, hats and Tomtems, which are mythical characters. Others went to downtown and it had most of the stores at home, but it was like a giant outdoor mall. We went back to the bus and loaded up to go back to the hotel for some free time before our game.

Some of us slept, while some of us made grab bags for the teams that we would be playing against in the tournament and our exhibition games. We loaded up the buses and headed out to the arena, which was quite strange by our standards. The floors everywhere were either tile or cement, and the benches were 2 levels. We had lots of fun playing against the Swedish team, and we won 11-0. We went back to the hotel to have dinner and we were quite surprised when we had Swedish ringette players (the ones played against) visit us for dinner. They taught us Swedish and we exchanged MSN and Facebook. All in all, it was a very amazing day, and we will miss Sweden when we have to leave tomorrow for Finland.

A good start

The Hamilton Heat U14 team began the on ice part of our tour in good fashion with an 11-0 win over a combined Jarna/Ulriksdal team at Solna Ice Hall tonight. Halli and Sarah shared the shut out, while Steffany led the scoring with 3 goals and was named the Heat player of the game by the organizers. We played 2 20 minute halfs, but managed to keep our legs moving until the end.

The parents in the stands were waving small Canadian flags, and many of these flags were given away to enthusiastic young Swedish ringette players who were there to watch the game. In return, they gave us impromptu lessons in Swedish! Christine Ritchie can name all the animals in a Swedish zoo.

After the game, the Heat players presented gift bags to the host players, and we gathered for a group photo. To our delight, many of the players and their coaches came back to the hotel to join us for dinner, and many e-mail addresses and Facebook names were exchanged.

Different language, different customs, but we all share a love of ringette. A great day in a beautiful country full of wonderful people.

Now, off to bed.

On the town

Here's the team this morning as we headed out to see Stockholm. Tonight, our first game!

The HEAT is in Sweden

A group of tired travellers has arrived in Stockholm. Time to crash for a couple of hours before we get together for dinner and a meeting to plan our next few days. More to report later.

Almost there

Cashing in those points was worthwhile. Erica and I are comfortable in the Swiss Air business class lounge in Zurich, awaiting our connection to Stockholm. It's 3:20 am our time but 9:20 am here. The Swiss coffee will keep us going (me anyway).

The view of the sun rising over the Alps as we approached Zurich was stunning.

Some members of the Richmond Hill team were seated behind us on our flight.

Next stop, Stockholm.

Here We Go

From Guelph and Cambridge. From Jordan, Newmarket, Hamilton, Mississauga. Via London or Zurich. En route to Stockholm. Here we go.