What a fantastic game! It's been a while since I've seen Women's Hockey, and I am really impressed at how quick the game has become. There was lots of great stick work and passing, and some very physical play. (However, I think the fact that there is a penalty called "Women body checking" is stupid!).
Then, with the USA up 1-0 at the end of the second period, my TV blacked out! Arggh! When it finally came back, Canada was up 3-1 - I missed 3 goals! The end of the game was frantic, and Canada held on to win 3-2. Round 1 to Canada. These teams will likely meet again in the final.
Of course, the other great news today was that Denny Morrison captured the silver in the Men's 1000m Speed Skating! This is a fantastic story. Denny is a veteran, and one of Canada's strongest speed skaters. However, he wasn't even entered in this event because he fell during qualifying in Canada. His teammate Gilmour Junio, who had already competed in the 500m, offered to give up his spot in the 1000m to Denny, because he thought Denny would have a better shot of medaling (turns out he was right!).
After winning the silver, Denny tweeted that he thought Gilmour should be chosen to carry Canada's flag at the closing ceremonies for his act of selflessness. I'm not sure about that, as I think we will have lots of other worthy candidates, but it does make me proud to be Canadian.
As does this other story from yesterday, where Canadian cross-country coach Jason Wadsworth offered a ski to a Russian who had fallen and broken one during a semi-final heat in the Men's Cross-Country Sprint. These are the kind of stories that make me love the Olympics!
Also tonight was the Pairs Free Skate, and there were some amazing performances. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch had a great skate (and I'm sure all of my Leaside Synergy friends will have recognized the music from Fellini that was also part of the Synergy "Clown" program from last year). Kirsten and Dylan jumped from 7th after the short to finish 5th overall.
Meagan and Eric also skated well, getting a season's best score, but falling from 6th to 7th overall, while Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers hung in to finish 14th. Ultimately though, no-one was going to catch Trankov and Volosozhar, and in a huge surprise, Russia also captured the silver, as the German team of Savchenko and Szolkowy fell from 2nd to 3rd, though they made a valiant effort, tossing in a throw triple axel attempt to end the program.
12 hours behind you at the moment but i did see the last period of the Russia - Slovenia game early this morning (NBC) - looks like they filled the seats for that game. Russia vs. USA next....
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