A week of world-class hockey

The 2004 IIHF World Junior Championships were held in Helsinki and Hämeenlinna from December 26, 2003 to January 5, 2004. After seeing the grit of the Finns against defending champions Russia, I was sure they would beat the U.S. in the semi-finals. It just wasn't meant to be; after a game of hard hitting and missed chances, the hometown favourites fell 2-1 in the semifinals.

Bronze medal match:
Finland vs. Czech Republic

Against the Czechs in the bronze medal match, the Finns seemed to be asleep for the first two periods. They were stoned on several scoring chances; it was just maddening to watch! However, the Finns woke up in the third period and scored two unanswered goals to snatch the bronze medal. Lauri Tukonen and defence man Sami Lepistö scored for Finland. Goalie Hannu Toivonen faced 16 shots and was scored upon once by Roman Vondracek.

Gold medal match:
Canada vs. USA

Canada was the obvious favourite coming into this tournament, and it has been seven long years since Canada has taken home the gold. The long drought for Canada continued, with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the U.S. Canada led the game 3-1 at the beginning of the third period and I was thinking to myself that all the U.S. had to do was score the second goal to start their rally—they did, and so began Canada's decline. Canada missed out on several chances to put the game away early, including at least three pucks off the post and a wide open net! The Canadian fans were just moaning with frustration!

Some 7,300 people took in the gold medal game; it was interesting to see that neither Canada or the U.S. had more support than the other. What was evident, though, were the number of people dressed in red and white! There were a whole lot of Canadian fans at the game, but the Americans did have their core of fans as well! Hockey Canada indicates that some 1.4 million viewers took in the game on television in Canada, signifying the importance of Canada's future hockey stars to Canadians!

By Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho