January 20, 2012
Posted in Alberta Edition, Major Junior, Hockey Canada
By Mark Janzen /
Sometimes the difference in hockey between a win and a loss can be found between the teeth of fine comb.
It’s a bounce here. A post there. An untimely penalty now. Or a deflected shot that caroms without notice to the back of the net then.
In a short-term tournament like the World Junior Championships, those hair-width differences are exponentially magnified.
And unfortunately for Canada, in this year’s holiday tournament, all those bounces, posts, penalties and deflections came in one untimely period and that proved to be the difference between a shot at a gold medal and settling for, what they ultimately earned, a bronze.
Trailing 2-1 early in the second period of the tournament’s second semifinal against Russia, the Canadians lost their composure and, when it came down to it, the game and the tournament.
After Brett Connolly scored 2:37 into the middle frame to make it a 2-1 game to seemingly get Canada right back into the contest, Russia went on the attack, bouncing and whacking there way to three straight goals while on the other side Canada imploded. By the end of the period, the Canadians had received two minor penalties, a major penalty and two misconducts and were trailing 5-1.
“We had one bad period, the second against the Russians, and that really cost us the opportunity to go for the gold,” said Canada’s coach Don Hay.
For the most part, other than maybe the third period against the U.S. in a meaningless New Year’s Eve not-so classic round robin match, that was Canada’s only fault.
But that was all it took.
The Canadians had a miraculous near comeback in the third, coming up one shot off the post shy of tying it up late but in the end lost 6-5.
Two days later Canada regrouped and won the bronze medal with a tidy 4-0 win over Finland while Sweden beat Russia 1-0 in overtime of the gold medal game.
While Canada didn’t win gold, and that concept seems to spark the word “travesty” in these parts, what the red and white did do was win a medal for the 14th straight year and the 19th time in the last 20 tournaments.
And that is pretty darn impressive.
“There are a lot of countries that are very competitive in the tournament, this year,” said Canadian forward Brendan Gallagher. “It’s not easy for any country going there. It’s a very competitive tournament.
“You go there with the expectation to win a gold medal and when we lost that semifinal it was really tough on us. But at the same time, we’re really proud of our bronze medal.”
With Sweden taking gold this year, it marks the fourth different country to win in the last four years and while gold will always be expected in Canada, the sport truly is a global game.
“I don’t think we have ownership in hockey,” Hay said. “Hockey is international. The countries that we’re playing against feel that the way they play hockey is the right way. I think we have to compete like everyone else to have that chance to win the gold medal and a lot of things need to go right to win.”
It’s never easy coming up short but as Gallagher puts it, “twenty or 30 years down the road it’s something that we’ll be able to talk about.”
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