Just got home from the gold medal game of the World Hockey Juniors Tournament. It was Canada vs. Russia (earlier today we say USA play Finland for bronze). We shouted and cheered until we could hardly breathe, and the building literally shook from all the fans clapping, screaming, stomping and otherwise making lots of noise.

I admit that I didn’t hold out much hope. Last Monday we saw Russia play Team USA and basically the Russians cleaned their clocks. Last week in the Canada vs. USA game it was close, both teams were pretty evenly matched. So my prediction this morning was that USA would easily beat Finland to win the bronze medal and Russia would beat Team Canada. I probably would have put money down on such results, if I were silly enough to bet money on sports.

I was wrong. Oh boy was I wrong. At noon today we watched Finland beat USA 4 – 2 in a very decisive victory. Then came the game everyone was waiting for at 4pm. Team Canada came out very strong, scoring two goals in the first period. Two more goals in the second period put the Russians back on their heels. The third period was again dominated by Canada. Not to say that Russia didn’t have plenty of scoring opportunities, but for this game our goalie was better than their goalie. Final score: 5 – 0. Shots on goal: Canada 34, Russia 35.

We stayed for the entire ceremony and cheered like mad for both teams when the medals were handed out. Russia certainly earned silver. Canada earned gold.

This is the second year in a row that Team Canada has won the Juniors Tournament. It was amazing to watch, and congratulations to every player of every team. We saw two weeks of really great hockey. Tonight it was announced that we set a new record for Juniors Tournament attendance too. Cool! Next year the tournament will be held in Sweden. You can be sure that we’ll be watching the games on television.