Day 5 of Tournament - Dec. 31, 2015 - New Year's Eve

Well, today was the big day. We were getting ready for the big New Year's Eve game against Sweden. Things were pretty quiet for most of the day while we waited for the buses to leave at 2:40 pm.  We went back to the store to make a couple more purchases. We found out that it was a Target, so felt like we "must" be getting good deals.

Then we stayed in our room, watching TV and working on the computer until we were ready to go. All of us boarded the buses and left for the arena. The first game was Denmark and USA. The Danes were clearly the weaker team, but they put up a good fight. During that game, the crowd was growing, with lots of Swedes showing up for the next game.

The US won, and then we had the wait for the Canada-Sweden game. The Swedes were a very vocal group, doing lots of singing and chanting. The attitude from all was pretty positive, with the Canadian crowd answering (or at least trying to) the chants of the Swedish fans. They were dressed in their colours while the Canadians were dressed in ours.

Crowds before the game

Lots of Canadians and Swedes

When the teams came on the ice, the arena was very loud. There were far more Canadians in there, than there were Swedes, but they made up for the lower number with lots of noise. Again, the Canadians responded with our noise.

The game started and the Swedes scored the first goal. Our goalie didn't seem to be very comfortable, letting out rebounds, often missing the puck by a bit, and generally giving Sweden the edge. They scored first, and then later on, scored the 2nd goal. Fortunately, Canada scored late in the period to hopefully bring some life to the boys. Canad was taking a lot of penalties, and Sweden has a pretty powerful power play.

Team Canada Ready to Take to the Ice

Crowd across the arena from our seats

The fans around us were pretty disgruntled. Many of them knew they had the answer and the boys just had to do what they said. Most of the opinions were to do different things, but clearly they thought they knew more than the coaches and players of Team Canada.

In the 2nd period, our boys came out and worked very hard. They were doing lots of hitting, and the Swedes were backing off. Unfortunately, there was a breakdown and the Swedes scored again. This really quieted our crowd, but added lots of life to the Swedish fans. Canada was taking lots of penalties, and the Swedish power play was very good. They moved the puck quickly, and always seemed to have open guys. When Canada got the puck, they always seemed to have one or two guys attacking the puck handler.

The 2nd period was our best period, but they were down even farther. When the break happened, we were down 3-1, so it was still doable.

When the 3rd period started, we thought it might be different. Unfortunately for us, Sweden started to play seriously, and they smothered our guys. It was as if there were more Swedes on the ice than what was legal. Canada didn't make a serious move in this period, falling down another goal. In the last couple minutes, we pulled our goalie and the Swedes scored an empty net goal. There were a lot of sad looks and disappointment from the fans in our section, but life will go on. At least the team made the playoffs.

After that, it was back on the bus and off to the New Year's Eve party. This took place in an undisclosed place, and when we got there, we were assigned tables according to our bus. Our bus was split between 2 halls in the venue, and it was very quick. We got to our table, took our jackets off, and then attacked the buffet for dinner. This consisted of green salad, a couple other types of salads, scalloped potatoes and roast beef. It was great. There was coffee and dessert. Our dessert was another cake like we had in Tallinn. The jello on top of the cake had some very tart and tasty berries, and it was quite enjoyable.

About that time, people were getting their jackets on to go outside to watch the fireworks. We didn't go out, and apparently they were over pretty quickly. Folks came back in, and then many of the friends we had made came around to wish us Happy New Year. Shortly after that, we left for the bus and the trip back to our hotel. We got back there at about 1:00 am, and were off to bed. This was a long day and night for old folks like us.