The Fox’s Tail: Gold medal .. in Overtime .. in Prague!

Blog — By fox on January 25, 2012 10:16 AM

Editor’s note: This post is the fourth (and final) in a series about my trip to the World Juniors in Prague in 2007/2008. I went with a large group, about 350 Canadians, and spent time with them in Vienna and Prague before venturing to visit family in London.

The Fox’s Tail is a blog featuring a hockey perspective from a girl working with a hockey team in Canada.

By Fox

Last I left you, I had been telling you about the crazy New Year’s Eve we had in Prague and the days that followed, where Team Canada picked up a win in the quarter-finals over the Finns en route to the semis.

The day between the quarter-finals and the semifinals (hyphen in QF, no hyphen in SF haha Canadian Press style guide ftw) we had an off day, where we enjoyed Czech food, and more exploring in town. But on Friday, it was back to business.

Canada had a game to win! Which they obviously did, which was the most

awesome because … well … it was against the Americans. The other awesome thing that day? Russia lost to Sweden. Although, after watching Russia lose to the Swedes, we were a little nervous, since Canada had lost to Sweden earlier in the round-robin, and the Swedes were touting a gangly 17-year-old stud blueliner, you may have heard of him … Victor Hedman?

Annnnyway. Not TOO much to say about the semis, other than we won, and it was awesome. Canada won 4-1. Lone American goal netted by none other than van Riemsdyk.

Headed to the gold medal game, and surely already bringing home a medal. Great news for us!

The more important part, is the following day. It was our last day together, and the last, and most important game. Prior to our game, was Russia vs. the States. I think this may possibly have been the most awkward scenario for us Canucks, since we didn’t know who to boo at. Being Czech myself, I usually boo at the Russians (if you know why Jagr wears #68 and you’ll know why) but I decided I hated the States more and booed at them instead, apparently, since the photo captions on Facebook in my album indicate at the time I was glad Russia won the bronze.

Between games, as per usual, we headed to the Hat Trick Lounge for our usual pre-game meal of $1.78 beers and good times. The staff at the bar who all loved us very much (I mentioned before they thought it was completely bizarre, but awesome, that we tipped them) had made us a giant banner wishing us good luck. One of the bartenders, Ondra (prounounced like the French André) had lived in Saskatchewan for a time, as his father was a university professor, had served as our liasion all week, so we made sure to tip him extra well before we were off.

And then. It was here. The moment we had all come to the tourney in the first place — to watch Canada win!

I haven’t written a gamer in a while, and I’m just going off the game sheet here, but this is what I used to do for a living…

After dropping the previous match against Sweden a week earlier in round-robin play at the 2008 World Junior Hockey Championship in Pardubice, Czech Republic, Canada needed to find a way to win in the gold medal game. And thanks to some over-time heroics, the Canucks were able to win the country’s fourth-straight gold at the tourney.

After a day off between the semi-final game where Canada turfed Team USA 4-1, the young Canadians were champing at the bit. The pride of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, gritty Brad Marchand, got things off to a solid start, fooling Swedish netminder Jhonas Enroth at 1:27 of the opening frame. Marchand also picked up an assist on Canada’s second goal, along with Kyle Turris, as Ottawa’s Claude Giroux put Canada up by a pair on the man-advantage at 17:01 of the first.

While it was appearing as though Canada had found a way to dismantle the Swedes’ blueline, the second period was a little less successful. Despite throwing more shots at Enroth in the second, Canada was unable to pad its lead. After a scoreless second period, Canada was out-shooting Sweden 17-11, up by two, and only 20 minutes from finishing what they came to the tournament to do.

Not if the Swedes had anything to do with it, however. Five minutes into the third period, the Swedes took advantage of a two-minute minor by Canada’s Shawn Matthias, who was assessed a penalty for hooking. Sweden’s powerplay goal at 5:13, courtesy of Jonathan Carlsson, cut Canada’s lead in half.

With renewed hope, Sweden rallied and began peppering Canadian netminder Steve Mason with shots, eventually out-shooting Canada in the third period 14-3.

The thousands of Canadians making up the majority of the crowd of 7,500 at Cez Arena, collectively held their breath as Marchand was given a penalty for charging at 13:07.

After having safely killed off the penalty, the Canucks seemed to sigh with relief and with a minute left to go in the game, the crowd got to its feet, ready to celebrate — and then … Tomas Larsson buried for Sweden with his unassisted game-tying goal. The building fell silent.

The two teams were tied and headed for overtime.

Canada had only one shot in the extra frame. The one that won the gold medal. At 3:36 of overtime, it was all over, after Mississauga’s Matthias forced a turnover, and fellow Mississauga native, Matt Halischuk crammed the puck past Enroth.

When I got back to Canada, I wrote a column about it for the newspaper I worked at. And I will quote a little for you. “The gold medal game was by far and away the best ghing I have ever been to in my life. Minus the 15 minutes between the third period and overtime. Gut-wrenchingly painful and awful. And then, we won. People were jumping around and yelling and screamng and throwing flags on the ice. John Tavares toted one around with him for quite a while (before disappearing into the dressing room, only to return with his digital camera). Some people were laughing, some were crying. And I’ve never been so happy to sing O Canada in my life. … I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so proud to be Canadian.”

During that 15 minutes, it was weird. It was like being numb. Someone said, “What should we do?” and someone else said, “Do the same thing you do EVERY intermission.” Superstitious bunch that we are, we did. I went outside for a smoke in the exact same place I always stood, with the same people. The only thing I did different was I kept the little red puzzle piece they gave me as my token to get back in (instead of hand stamps or ticket stubs, that was how smokers got in and out of the rink … with a plastic puzzle piece). Then I went to the same beer counter, got a beer from the cute, underage boy selling beer, guzzled it back with the chefs, Jeff and Andrew, and then hurried back to my seat. When I said some people laughed and some cried when Canada won … I’ll admit, I cried. I’m not a big cryer, but damn that was a great moment. Everyone was hugging and snapping photos and celebrating. Marchand even jumped into the penalty box so we could get a closer look at his medal.

That night, we all went to this INSANE bar. Each table had it’s own beer tap, no word of a lie. When you went inside, you got a mug, and they kept track on a giant screen at the back of the room of how many beers each table had drank. We somehow got into a competition with another table of Canadians, and our table of 8 put away 60-something pints of draught before the night was through. We were dancing to 90s music, people were taking off their clothes, wearing flags as capes … it was nuts.

And then we had to head back to our hotels, pack our stuff and head to the airport. Most everyone else boarded their flights back to Canada, but I headed on toward London to visit my cousin, who was living there at the time. On the plane, still drunk, stinking like booze, still wearing my jersey from the night before, and feeling more than a little under the weather, I settled into my seat. And then this guy sits down beside me.

“Did Canada win the World Juniors?” he asked me with a hint of a Boston accent. After a week and a half of trying to explain to the Czech locals WHY a bunch of Canadians were in their country, I was a little surprised to hear this guy ask something like that. I told him we had indeed won, and he explained, “I used to play hockey. My name is Jiri … like Jiri Fischer. I played hockey at Boston College.” Jiri and I chatted plenty more on our short flight to London. He was heading to visit some friends before heading back to his home in Fort Lauderdale. Jiri’s grandmother had packed him some lunch, and we swapped stories about our Babi trying to feed us.

London was awesome. More beer, sight-seeing, shopping, and visiting my family. And then it was back to Toronto for 36 hours, then back out west.

I hope you all enjoyed this little trip down memory lane for me. Many of the people I met on this trip I still keep in touch with today, and if you’re ever thinking about going to the World Juniors in Europe, DO IT. It’s honestly not that much more expensive than going in Canada (if you have to include a flight within this vast country, I mean) because the tickets, food and hotels are cheaper than here.

Til next time …

- Foxy

Question, comment, chirp? Get at me … Twitter @hockey_foxx or e-mail me at redline_blueline@hotmail.com .. For girl stuff (and hockey) check http://hockeyfoxx.blogspot.com

Tags: brad marchand, Drew Doughty, FoxTail, hockey, john tavares, Team Canada, world juniors