Sorry for the late post! By the time we got back from eating after the last game it was late and I just needed to get some sleep. Tuesday was the first day of games! We didn't have a meeting in the morning so we were all able to sleep in a little before heading down to breakfast. My game was at 3:30 so we didn't leave the hotel until 1:00. That gave me plenty of time to relax, review the rules one last time and go grab a sandwich to bring to the rink for between the two games.
We arrived at the rink about 2 hours prior to game time. I was at Scotia Bank so I took the opportunity to just walk around the arena and take it all in. To be honest, they are treating this whole tournament just like I imagine they treat the Ottawa Senators. It is absolutely amazing. Our locker room was stocked with every possible product we would ever need (they even included tampons knowing it is a women's tournament!) and we have a team services rep there constantly checking on us. And just walking around the arena, seeing all the signage and merchandise, this tournament is just on a whole different level than any other tournament I've ever worked.
So on to the game, I had Finland vs Switzerland, which was a rematch of the bronze medal game last year. I worked with Melanie (Canada) and Michaela (Slovakia). It was a really good game, with Finland winning 2-1. We got through the TV timeouts with only one issue (the people in the scorebox forgot the first one!) and really the game went pretty smoothly. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous stepping out on the ice for the first face off but as the game got going I got comfortable and just did my job. The announced attendance was 3300 fans, which is pretty good when you consider it was a Tuesday afternoon and the home team wasn't playing. One funny moment that happened during the game, there was a little scrum in front of the net and a Finnish player fell on top of a Swiss player. Once they both got up, there was a jill laying on the ice. Non hockey friends, a jill is the female version of a cup so how it got there I have no idea. The girls all started laughing when I said "whose is this because I'm not picking it up."
After the game I showered and changed into my track suit because I was the standby for the USA/Canada game. The announced attendance was just under 12,000 so as you can imagine, it was pretty loud in there. USA was up 2-0 after 2 and was largely controlling the game but Canada woke up in the 3rd and really put the pressure on. They scored a goal about 10 minutes in then tied the game with 2 minutes left. The place went nuts when they scored the tying goal. After a few close chances in OT, the game went to a shootout. Canada won the shootout 2-1 so as is tradition with the IIHF, the Canadian national anthem was played after the game. The girls working the game did a great job, the atmosphere was awesome and it was just a fun game to watch.
Today I'm super excited because I'm working with Laura for Russia vs Czech. It should be a good game, Czech upset Sweden yesterday and Russia beat Germany. Looking forward to getting back on the ice!
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