Hockey Night In Vancouver

This morning I toured Granville Island and English Bay, but that will have to wait because when I got to work at 3pm I was offered a ticket to the men's Canada vs. Switzerland hockey game starting at 4:30pm at Canada Hockey Place...

John Pastore is the COMMs manager and he got the ticket for me and allowed me to start work later tonight so that I could go to the game!  Thanks John!

I quickly headed over to the arena and breezed through security, but then they hearded everbody through a single gate to get inside.

This is normally called GM Place and is the home of the Vancouver Canucks, though you would never know it because all traces of both GM and the Canucks have disappeared.

The crowd was a sea of red and white (it didn't hurt that Switzerland is also red and white), and they were going nutty even before the game began...

Finally the game got underway, and it was a very close game, with Canada leading only 1-0 after the first period...

Canada looked a little tight, and the defense was sloppy.  Danny Heatley (who scored the first goal) was the best player on the ice and generated excitement every time he touched the puck.

The noise was deafening at times, especially after Canada extended the lead to 2-0.  However, Switzerland battled back scoring twice in the second period to tie the game at 2-2.

This game was being played four years to the day when Switzerland shocked Team Canada 7-5 at the Torino Olympics, so there was a lot of tension during the third period with the score tied.  The Swiss goaltender stopped 18 shots in the third period to force the shoot out.

After both teams missed their first three shots in the shoot out, Sidney Crosby scored and the Swiss team then missed their last chance to keep it alive. Canada was lucky to escape with the win, though it is only worth 2 points, instead of 3 for a regulation time win, so we now sit 1 point behind the USA in our pool.  Canada will have to play a whole lot better if we expect to challenge for the gold medal.

It was a little emotionally draining, but overall it was a very exciting game, and I was really caught up with the craziness and patriotism in the crowd.   A great night.