Any hockey fan, or anyone living in Canada, for that matter, can relate to that memorable Tuesday night where they watched in despair for 40 minutes, lived through 15 minutes of hope and five minutes of (to describe the scenario melodramatically) impending doom.
Alas, the Men’s Junior Canadian Hockey team met more than their match on Tuesday night against the Russian team in the semi-final game in Calgary. My personal take on the game was that Team Canada played wonderfully but had a couple of bad bounces that didn’t go their way, mental lapses that resulted in Russian goals and disciplinary issues. Although bad luck is something outside of the player’s control, the latter certainly aren’t. Part of their loss was due to their inability to cope up with adversity, as this was the first time in the entire tournament that Canada was ever losing at any point in the game. So when faced with adversity, Canada panicked and made bad mistakes and vented their frustrations, which lead to penalty trouble.
That aside, man was that a heck of a third period! Team Canada battled fiercely and really showed that they were the better team in scoring four goals and cutting the deficit to only one. Canada had five minutes to score the equalizer, but regardless their perseverance, they just weren’t able to capitalize on their chances. Team Canada fought until the very last second, and really made many fans proud to say they were Canadian.
Though we lost, many players in their post-game interview felt that this was a period that they will take with them in their later careers as players, because it taught them many things. Of those takeaway lessons, one of them I can bet is to never give up! After that, Canada went away with the bronze medal.
