Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Mission Accomplished!
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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:
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.
More details and photos to follow.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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!
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??!!!
Friday, January 1, 2010
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.
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.
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