Yesterday was the last day of the tournament. These 9 days have absolutely flown by, I feel like we just got here. Everyone else feels the same way too, one of the rink guys saw Joy yawning and asked if she was tired. She said it was probably jet lag, to which he responded "you've been here a week, I doubt it is still jet lag!" We started the morning off with a group meeting. It was pretty cool, Rene Fasel, the president of the IIHF and Tony Rossi, the tournament director, came in to thank us and presented us with medals commemorating our participation in the tournament. After we reviewed logistics and got paid for all of our games we all had individual meetings with the supervisors. It was definitely a little nerve racking, they had one chair in the front of the room and you faced all 4 of them sitting behind a table. I've been in that position before, but more recently I've been on the other side of the table! Let me tell you, it is a lot more comfortable when you are on the side with several people. My meeting went really well, we discussed what I did well, what I can improve on and a little bit about what the future holds. I felt really good when I left the room and can leave Ottawa with my head held high.
On to the fun stuff though, the games. We got to the rink early because they were offering all those with credentials 40% off tournament merchandise. Following the shopping excursion, I got some massage therapy on my hip flexor just in case I had to go in to the bronze medal game. Holy crap did that hurt, I was near tears but it did feel a little better once she was finished. Finland and Russia played a really good game and Russia pulled the upset and won 2-0. It was only the Russian's second ever medal at worlds and first in 12 years so they were clearly pretty excited. One of the cool IIHF traditions is at the end of the game after the player of the game awards they play the winning teams national anthem. The Russians were singing and many of their players were crying as their anthem was being played.
Next up was the gold medal game between Canada and the USA. The arena was packed and loud, with fans chanting "CANADA, CANADA." Krissy and I both agreed it gave us the chills. Canada scored in the first to take a 1-0 lead but the US had a large lead in shots. USA scored early in the 2nd to tie the game on an absolutely gorgeous goal, then they took the lead on the powerplay. Canada came back to tie the game on the powerplay with about 2 minutes left in the period so it was 2-2 after 2. USA was able to score about 7 minutes in to the 3rd period and held on the rest of the way for the victory. It was a fantastic game and the US team played really well, outshooting the Canadians 30-17. After the awards ceremony the tournament ended with the US national anthem being played. Let's just say that I'm glad singing is not the career choice of may of those girls, haha!
And with that the tournament ended and we headed back to the hotel to celebrate a job well done. It was a pretty late night and some had pretty early morning departures. Fortunately I was able to sleep in because Laura and I are driving up to Montreal for a few days.
This has been an absolutely amazing experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity. I'll blog while I'm in Montreal and will do a little recap once I'm home and have had a chance to let it all sink in. Just a fun side note, as I'm sitting here typing this I have the Canadian version of Sportscenter on. They led off the show with highlights from the gold medal game, did two subsequent reports and had two of the goal in their top plays of the day. Cool to see how much respect the Canadians have for the women's game, that would never happen in the US. Off to Montreal for a few days of sightseeing!
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