I don't know why I'm even posting this here because 99% of you probably don't even know (or care) about this tournament, but Finland have just beaten Russia in the ice hockey World Juniors final, and beating the Russians in something is always a good enough reason to post. :wink: Also, this tournament is kind of a big deal in North America apparently (because of the NHL draft I suppose), so perhaps [MENTION=7270]redarmy990[/MENTION] [MENTION=7461]CalgaryTyke[/MENTION] (speaking of which, where is she?!) [MENTION=6635]EastStander[/MENTION] etc have been following it? Great tournament, we beat some good teams along the way and some of these guys will surely be playing in the NHL some time soon. I'm not really even a huge hockey fan - unlike most other Finns, football has always been the number one sports for me, but these tournaments are always quite exciting. Finland vs Russia is pretty much the ice hockey equivalent of England vs Germany in football, so there's always a lot of passion in these games. And this final couldn't have been any more dramatic... Russia score an easy goal in the beginning of the first period, Finland dominate the game but just can't score until the first minute of the last period. Russia score again almost instantly to make it 2-1, but Finland come back yet again and score twice with only a few minutes remaining. The Russian captain then goes berserk and attacks a match official with his stick and gets sent off (it may have been his last game for a while...). It looks like Russia are already beaten, but just six seconds before the end they get an equaliser and the game goes to extra time, and then this happens...(enjoy the Finnish commentary! ) [video=youtube;QR83Twux-mo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR83Twux-mo[/video] Vladimir Putin, Roman Abramovich, Anna Kournikova, [MENTION=6701]Merde Tete[/MENTION], Rasputin... your boys took a hell of a beating!
Haha, well it's not going to happen in football any time soon(I wish we would even qualify for a major tournament one day!), so for that reason alone I'm happy that ice hockey exists!
Myself and the present vaimo were married in Helsinki in 1992 so I think I'll take pride in this. The big fear at the time was that the Soviet Union would collapse and millions of Russians would simply march west into Finland in search of a better life!
Haven't you been to Alkatraz Club? Regarding the Hockey, mates have been texting updates. Always find this a good tournament.
Tomi, do you know if the 1969 World Championship final is available anywhere on the internet? It was shown on UK Tv at the time and was known afterwards as the Battle of Stockholm, when the Czechs played the USSR for the first time since the 1969 Prague Spring Russian invasion. All I remember was the Czechs laying into the Russians from moment one and obviously with the USSR suppression it was the only way the Czechs could hit back. It was a titanic match that transcended a game of ice hockey. I've always told my lad about it, but have never been able to find footage.
I found two videos on Youtube that you might find interesting. Apparently the tournament format was different back then; it was a mini-league with 6 teams where they played two games against each team. Czechoslovakia beat the Soviets twice (2-0 and 4-3) but lost some other games, so Soviet Union won the tournament in the end and the Czechs "only" got bronze. Story behind ČSSR vs USSR 1969 Hockey World Cup (Swedish, but with English subs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty9MSr2mPiI Czech language documentary film with some more footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bu-6vNxWE8 Wikipedia article about the 1969 World Ice Hockey Championships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_World_Ice_Hockey_Championships Pretty interesting stuff, I didn't know most of that before. I had no idea that USA were truly awful back then (they lost all their games, conceded 74 goals in 10 games and the Soviets beat them 17-2!) and even Canada were quite weak.
It's a big deal in North America because they're mad on their hockey, and the Canadians especially have always seen the battle with the US as a sign of who's progressing the most at a younger level. I missed the final (just landed back in London) but I watched four or five of the games whilst I was out in Canada for Christmas/New Year. Something like 17 years since Canada didn't get out of the group? And God knows how long since Canada or the US weren't in the final. The Fins were quality from what I saw. Well deserved.
Hi Tomi. I was in Finland when your boys were playing in the Olympic semi final and from what I remember you hammered the USA. There was a great atmosphere everywhere. Unfortunately I haven't been able to follow the latest tournament as I'm in Cambodia - I'm not sure if they even know what ice hockey is here!
It was the bronze medal game actually, not the semi final. We beat the USA 5-0. What are you doing in Cambodia?! [video=youtube;-KTsXHXMkJA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA[/video]
I've not been watching for the past few years since I've been working over the Christmas/New Year period. I used to get really into it when I had time off, between that, the Boxing Day Test and the Christmas football I was well set. Is this it? [video=youtube;MPFE1Q-r0hI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPFE1Q-r0hI[/video]
Wow, nice detective work there! Thanks for posting this. Ice hockey really was quite a different game back then, it looks so much slower here than it is nowadays - the difference is so big that it looks like they're not even playing seriously. It's crazy that some of these players aren't wearing helmets, and those goalkeeper masks are just creepy. Their pads and shields are much smaller too than what they have today. The whole video is two hours long, so if you want to watch the goals only, they're at 1:01:00 and 1:28:00
Avoiding the Baltic winter! Minus 30 in St Petersburg right now! Oh, and recovering from a bout of food poisoning from a contaminated Khmer curry!
Can't blame you for escaping the winter - it's minus 25 degrees over here as well! Get well soon and stay away from the Khmer Rouge.
Hi Tomi...many thanks for that...I just wish I spoke Czech!! As to the USA and Canada being awful, it could be (although I'm not certain) that their best players couldn't play due to being professionals...the World Championships in most sports in those days was for amateurs only, although the eastern bloc countries usually had their best players masquerading as amateurs but employed by the Army.