Game 3: Another HSC win

After a fun night onboard the Silja Serenade and arriving in Helsinki around 9:30am, the group loaded onto our new coach bus and headed northwest of the city to the Reebok Areena in Espoo. We arrived with just 30 minutes until game time, but the boys were raring to go and dressed quickly. We actually found out on the bus that our opponents were not the team we expected, and we found ourselves playing their 4th tier 1999 team. Their coaches asked that we play a non-contact game as some of our players had 30-40 lbs on their players. The coaches made some lineup changes and gave the defensemen a chance to play forward and the forwards a chance to play d. Matt Gledhill, who was to sit the game as the third goalie, was also given the opportunity to play his first game as a player in ten years rather than watch from the bench.

 For the first time here, a goal was finally scored in the first period, as Anthony Tolfa kicked off the scoring 6:33 into the game on a feed from Lucas Fracassi and Niall Currah. Despite the age difference, the Espoo boys provided a good challenge for our altered lineup and managed a few good scoring chances, but Carson Hobbes kept them off the board. At the 14:48 mark, David Kwant scored his first of the tour, assisted by Matt Adams. The Trojans scored again 3 minutes later with Niall Currah banging in a rebound off a Lucas Fracassi shot, with Brett Lawrie also getting an assist. At the end of the first, HSC led 3-0.

Daniel Fulton came in to start the second period to ensure he gets his 5 periods of play. 7:32 into the period during a 5 on 4 advantage, Espoo finally found the back of the net to make the game 3-1. Niall Currah restored the 3-goal lead a couple minutes later with Lucas Fracassi earning his second assist of the game. Both teams continued to battle throughout the second with no more scoring, 4-1 HSC after two. During the intermission, bench boss Eric Gordon (who chose not to play due to the decreased level of competition) gave the boys some inspirational words to motivate them for the final frame.

The Trojans came out flat in the third, seeming to not take their opponents seriously, which led to two quick Espoo goals 1:26 apart early in the period. Finding the team up by only a goal in the middle of the final period, coach Gordon decided to stack the lines and send out some regular forward lines to get the game back under control and secure the win.  At the 15:33 mark, Anthony Tolfa scored his second of the game while the Trojans were shorthanded after a beautiful crossing pass from Will Kelly. History was then made as Will Kelly made another beautiful feed to Scott Mulvey who dingle-dangled forehand to backhand in the slot and went bar-down to bury his first ever HSC goal. The puck was secured from the refs to make sure Mulvey would forever have that souvenir. But it's already available for sale on Kijiji for collectors everywhere.

Off the ensuing faceoff win by Tolfa, Jeff Joynt walked over the blueline and rifled a shot past the Espoo goalie to leave no doubt about the result of this game. The Trojans were then asked to pull back the attack and the final minutes went by without any good scoring chances for either team. Final score HSC 7, Espoo 3.

Carson Hobbes was perfect in net saving 8/8 in one period of play. Daniel Fulton stopped 8 of 11 in two periods of play.

We now find ourselves watching the Canada-US game on an internet feed which we've hooked up from a laptop to a big screen tv through an HDMI cable. We're at Pajulahti Sports Institute in Lahti, Finland about 1 hour Northeast of Helsinki. We'll celebrate the New Year tonight with a Finnish sauna and some fireworks at midnight. The boys are excited for a much needed day of R&R tomorrow as we don't leave the institute all day. We'll have a nice sleep-in followed by some morning floorball, then have a game here at 2:00pm against Porvoo Hunters. After that, we'll have some more fun activity and some more sauna time in the evening.

Happy New Year from Finland!

Coach Z