Travel Plans

I've blogged about some of my past officiating experiences and how I got to this point but I really haven't written much about the tournament I'm going to!  First a little background - The IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) is the governing body for all 37 nations that have a national women's ice hockey team.  Each year, the IIHF sponsors world championship tournaments at both the senior level and the u18 level.  Now because it would be next to impossible logistically to have a 37 team tournament as well as the vast differences in level of play, they split all of those countries into 6 divisions.  Each division has their own World Championship tournament, with the team that wins moving up a division and the team that is in last moves down a division.  It is the goal of all nations to reach the top level, as those are the teams that play at the Olympic Games.  The goal is the same for us on ice officials, we all strive to work the highest level tournament possible.  

This year I'm fortunate enough to be headed to Malmo, Sweden for the Senior Women's top division tournament.  Competing at the tournament will be Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan.  The tournament splits the teams into two brackets - the top 4 teams (A pool) and the bottom 4 teams (B pool) each play a round robin.  At the end of the round robin, the top two teams from the A pool get bye's into the semifinals.  The bottom two teams from the A pool as well as the top two teams from the B pool play in the quarterfinals and the bottom two teams from B pool play a 3 game relegation series, with the loser moving out of the top level World Championship tournament next year.  This format is somewhat new and has made for some very competitive games over the past few tournaments.  USA and Canada play on the first night of the tournament (a rematch of the gold medal game in Sochi) so it is sure to start off with a bang.  

Now on to my travel plans.  First, where is Malmo, Sweden? That is a good question, I had to look it up on the map.  Malmo is the 3rd largest city in Sweden and is in the very southern tip of the country.  It is actually a short ferry/train ride from Copenhagen, Denmark which is actually where I will be flying in and out of.  This year my flights are pretty good, if you remember last year I had 2 layovers, one of which was 5 hours!  I leave Philly at 6:50 on Wednesday evening and fly direct to Frankfurt.  In Frankfurt I have about a 2 hour layover before the short 1:20 flight to Copenhagen.  Once I arrive in Copenhagen there will be someone waiting for me to help me get to our hotel in Malmo.  The tournaments officially kicks off on Saturday, March 28th and the final games take place on Saturday, April 4th.  Here is a link that contains the schedules and more tournament details: http://www.worldwomen2015.com

As I've mentioned previously, one of the wonderful things about working these tournaments is the opportunity to travel after.  This year, my good friend from college Kathleen is coming over to travel with me.  I am going to meet her in Copenhagen after the tournament ends.  From there, we are taking an overnight cruise to Oslo, Norway.  We will spend a day/night in Oslo then take a train to Stockholm, Sweden.  After another day/night in Stockholm we will take another train back to Copenhagen before heading home on Thursday, April 9th.  I'm super excited to be able to travel with a friend and am looking forward to exploring Scandinavia.  I'll be leaning on some of my fellow officials who are from those countries to point us in the right direction in terms of what to see and do - just another benefit of having friends from all over the world. 

Alright I'm off to bed, there is lots to get done both at work and personally in the next 72 hours.   I'll leave you with a funny story.  Today I worked my last game prior to leaving, just a local women's league game.  I got my haircut this past week for the first time since the early part of the season.  I had to adjust my helmet fit because my hair wasn't fitting right! #femalerefproblems