Full game reports

Game 1 - Canada West 2 - HC Hvezda Praha 2

In the team's first game, it was a big adjustment to the large Olympic ice size. The Prague team was quite effective at using the ice and cycling the puck in the offensive end, leaving the Canada West defenders chasing. It became pretty clear that we were playing the host team, and that whlie Canada may be respected around the world, that love does not translate to hockey! Let's just say the refs might have been a bit biased. There was stick-work galore, and icing calls waved off if there was a black jersey within 10 feet of the puck.

The team was back on their heels for the first part of the game and was down 1-0 less than two minutes in. They continued to scramble until Dylan Pisio made a cruching body check that literally took the wind out of the Czech player. Shortly after, Marcus Hall streaked down the right side and put a nice wrist shot over the Czech goalie's shoulder with a minute left in the period. In the second, Canada West spent a lot of time on the penalty kill, as the home town refs called any good body check a charge or a high stick. The Czechs went ahead with a power play goal mid way through the second, but Dylan Pisio tied it up again two minutes later. The third period was scoreless and the game ended in a tie. Logan Tisdale played shut-out goal in his half of the game.

Game 2 - Canada West 6 - Kils AIK (Sweden) 2

Canada West moved to a new rink for their final four games of the tournament, and this ice would be considered narrow even by North American standards, making it more condusive to the physical Canadian style of play. Again the reffing was questionable, as the Swedes were very aggressive with their stick work, slashing and cross checking regularly. Dawson Sawatzky went on a tear in this game, scoring two goals in the first period to give Canada West an early lead, but the Swedes got one back late in the period (it must have been a big deal to them, as the entire bench cleared to celebrate!). In the second, Sawatzky notched his third and Ryan Shirley added one, while Kils scored one more to make the score 4-2 after the second. With the score getting lopsided, we hoped that the refs would try to control the game in the third, but there was no such luck. After getting beaten on the scoreboard and along the boards, the Swedes began to resort to head tackling the Canadian players; luckily the refs called those blatant penalties. Dylan Pisio scored in the third, and Sawatzky added one more to his impressive total. Thomas Spence had a shut-out in his half of the game.

Game 3 - Slavia Bratislava 2 - Canada West 1

This morning's game was the definition of gong show - complete with cursing parents (bilingual!), corrupt refs, out-of-control coaches, and some cheap plays. The first period was scoreless, despite Bratislava getting a penalty shot opportunity on Thomas Spence. Both teams were playing physical and the refs weren't calling much. Likely the saving grace for Canada West is that if there is any hockey country that the Czechs hate more than Canada, it may be Slovakia. Things started to escalate when their biggest player kept going after our biggest player, Ryan Shirley. there were late hits, high sticks, elbowing and holding before the ref finally made a call: off-setting minors.

Things started to get quite out-of-hand in the second period. As some cheap hits by both teams went unpenalized, the Czech coaches and fans started to scream at the refs and there was even some unpleasantries exchanged between opposing coaches. At one point, one out-of-control Slovak parent yelled "F--- you, Canada! Go home!!" Marcus Hall opened the scoring when he beat the Bratislava goalie on a penalty shot, but the Slovaks came back a couple of minutes later with a goal of their own. In the third period, things continued to deteriorate. Bratislava got a penalty, and then the coach went balistic and got a bench minor and tossed out of the game. There was a delay in play, and then the coach came back, apparently with a head official from the tournament. Not only was he allowed back on the bench, but the official called the refs over, and from that point on, Canada West got the shaft. on the 5 on 3 powerplay, Josh Kropf scored to tie the game, but the ref waved off the goal. He said the net was off (which it clearly wasn't) and when he went over to "reset" the net, he couldn't even get it out of the holes that the pegs were in! It was the most frustrating game of the tournament so far for sure, but there were a lot of factors that were obviously out of the team's control;.