Game Day #3

When you go abroad to an international tournament, I've always been told to expect the unexpected.  Well that certainly rang true today!  The day started off as planned early this morning with the first portion of our tests.  I felt pretty good overall, we'll see how my scores are when they are posted.  After our tests, we came back to the hotel for breakfast and a meeting.  We then had some time off before lunch so Dina and I came back to the room for a little nap.  I must have been tired because I literally passed out until the alarm went off!

We met for a quick lunch before leaving for Prerov.  I had to go to the rink with the first crew because I was the standby linesman.  Anu, Chieko, Michaela, Mary Ann and I all met in the lobby to head over when we realized there were only 4 seats in the van for 5 people.  Because I was the standby, I was told to wait and head over a little later with the supervisors.  Well then when the supervisors arrived I found out they had offered the directorate a ride so there were 5 of us, plus my gear, for a pretty small car.  It was definitely a tight squeeze but we made it work.  I got to the rink right as warm ups were ending, dropped my stuff off in the room and headed up to the warm VIP area with Mary Ann, who was the standby referee.  Germany was playing Switzerland and they needed to win by 3 goals to advance.  The game started and everything was going fine, but then about 12 minutes in Michaela was on her line and got taken out by several players.  She got up and was holding her wrist but play continued.  Mary Ann and I kept watching her and she continued to hold her wrist.  We decided we'd walk down to check on her and try to find some ice for in between periods when a whistle finally occurred and we saw her skate right to the door where we enter the ice.  We then ran down to the locker room and saw she was cut pretty bad on her hand and needed stitches.  Apparently when she went down a player had stepped on her hand.  The locker room then turned into a Nascar pit stop as Mary Ann helped me get dressed as quickly as possible so they could resume the game.  I was dressed and on the ice within about 5 minutes of Michaela leaving the ice so all in all I'd say we did pretty well!  It was an intense game so it was really tough both mentally and physically to just skate out and go.   It took me a few minutes to get my bearings down and I certainly made my presence felt when I called a too many men penalty within 5 minutes of being on the ice!  We made it in to the locker room after the first period and I was at least able to stretch out a bit and chat with Chieko about certain situations.  When you have linesmen from all over the world, we inevitably all have our own styles so it is always important to have a quick pre-game chat about your tendencies.  Chieko and I didn't get that opportunity but we made it work. We had a penalty filled 2nd period including a penalty shot for the Swiss because the German goalie threw her stick.  The 3rd period calmed down a bit penalty wise but we had a ton of goals as both teams were pressing.  Germany ended up winning 6-1 with an empty netter to advance to the quarterfinals.

That game ended around 5:30, so that gave me approximately an hour and a half to rest up and refocus for my original game, Finland vs Canada.  I went up to the restaurant at the rink with Mary Ann and was able to have a little soup and chicken.  It was a fine line to walk, I was starving having just worked but didn't want to eat too much and not be able to skate.  While we were eating, Mary Ann told me she watched as the doctors stitched Michaela up right there in the rink.  She was bleeding a ton and the cut was pretty deep but once they cleaned it out but she only ended up with 2 stitches on the inside and 2 on the outside.  And apparently the doctors were not wearing gloves - another sign we are not in America right now!

My game was another blowout, Canada beat Finland 7-0.  I felt pretty good in the beginning but I could definitely feel my legs getting a little heavy in the 3rd.  I can't remember the last time I skated two games, both with 20 minute periods in an intense tournament with such a short break in between.  That said, all of the running, skating and conditioning I've done definitely paid off.  After the game was over, I took a nice long, hot shower. The exhaustion hit me on the way back to the hotel as I was falling asleep in the van.  We had some food after we got back to the hotel and we received assignments for tomorrow.  Coincidence would have it, I'm working the early quarterfinal game tomorrow between Sweden and Finland.  I'm also goal judging the second quarterfinal between Czech and Germany.  No rest for the weary!

Off to bed, I need to recover from today to get ready for another busy day tomorrow.  Goodnight!