An unforgettable adventure

Written by coach Greg

Well, we have been home for a few weeks now and back to our regular lives of school, work and ringette. A number of people had an unexpected extension of their holiday with an extra night in Frankfurt due to weather, airport delays and the general incompetence of Lufthansa. But we made the best of it and got home the next day...although Mohamed is still missing one piece of luggage!

We had a great time in Scandinavia and have been asked many questions upon our return. It seems that there are a number of other teams that want to learn from our experience and perhaps go themselves one day. We highly recommend it. The trip was a year in the making, but provided memories that will last a lifetime. The local Richmond Hill paper heard about our trip and wrote about us, including two photos, on Page 3!!! Pretty prominent coverage for the girls. It is in The Liberal on Sunday January 17...here is the link...

http://www.yorkregion.com/News/Sports/article/101849

Thanks for reading about our adventures, we appreciate your support and hope you enjoyed it!

Day 8 Ending on a High

Written by Coach Greg

Today is the last day of the tournament. We had an early game so the bus left the hotel at 8am…the girls were still in the process of waking up. So were some of us adults. Our first game of the day was critical as we needed to win or tie to have any chance of making the semifinals. It was against an undefeated team, one that was quite big and very skilled. The game was fast and tight, and we scored midway through the final period to tie that game and almost won it on a number of close chances in the last minute of the game. The Player of the Game was Melissa Simone. The Finnish goalies continue to demonstrate excellent skills. We had to wait for the next game to see if we advance. Hamilton needed to win in order for us to have a chance but they lost 7-0. This meant we would play in the consolation game. That too proved to be a very exciting game, with Richmond Hill scoring with over two minutes left to tie that game and then again with 7 seconds (shorthanded) left to win it. Sabrina Lem was named Player of the Game. This meant that we finished 5th in the tournament out of 9 teams. The Organizers named Melissa, Anika and Ashley the top players of the tournament for Richmond Hill. A very respectable showing by the girls, especially since most of the girls we played against were 1-2 years older. We headed back to the hotel to a nice dinner, during which we watched the consolation final again (thanks to Roman) with much cheering for the number of great plays and awesome stops by Ashley. We were still a little confused by some of the penalties. The adults then toasted the Mills family back in Newmarket with the Ice Wine they gave us before we came to Europe. As I type this many of the girls are beside me teasing Ollie our bus driver and Lauri is on the other side with Mohamed having a drink. The others have gone to sleep since many have an early morning flight…the first bus leaves at 4am for the airport. We had a spectacular time here in Finland - the tournament was very well organized and the competition was excellent. Many of the games were one goal games. Tomorrow we will be heading home and will provide an update when we arrive. A final thanks to Lauri and his team for making our trip so enjoyable…it really was an experience of a lifetime, one the girls will not forget.

Day 7 Feeling the Heat

Written by the coaches, Greg and Colette.

Day two of the tournament proved to be a tough one for the Lightning. We moved into the second round of the tournament and ended up facing the other Canadian team here, the Hamilton Heat. It was a hard fought battle with Hamilton scoring the game opener in the first period. However, that was short lived as we tied it up but Hamilton went on to score another goal in the final period to win the game 2-1. The player of the game was Sarah Esmail. We now need to win tomorrow morning to have a chance to move into the Semifinals. Today was also the skills competition and the pizza party for all the teams in the tournament. Two players from each team participated with Melissa Simone and Sarah Esmail representing our team. Both girls did extremely well. Sarah made it to the final two in the Precision Shooting contest and Melissa won the Shootout Contest, scoring 3 goals against the Finland National Team goalie, who was voted Top Goalie at the 2007 World Cup of Ringette. Despite the loss today, the girls are having fun and are getting pumped for tomorrow's game where we will play another Finnish Team. A special thank you to Lauri and Ollie for being so accommodating to our team. Today they made a special trip on the bus to take the girls to a Mall and others back to the hotel during a long gap in our Ringette schedule. They have really made our trip enjoyable.

Day 6 GAME ON!!!

Today was the start of the tournament and the reason for our travels. The talent level in Finland is better than expected. The 2 Finnish teams we played today were very skilled, big and strong. The first team we played was - EKS, which was comprised of mostly older players - 15 year olds with a few 14 year olds and one 13 year old. Although not our best game, EKS were very strong and had solid goaltending. They beat us 4-1. The player of the game was Brittany Pedersen. The girls knew we had to win the next game to advance to the next round and they came out flying! The second game was against Walapais - the girls pulled out their "A" game and came out with a 7-2 win! This meant that the girls will likely finish second in our division. Melissa Simone scored 6 goals and our goaltender, Ashley Pedersen was strong between the pipes. The player of the game was Ashley Pedersen.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family and goodnight from beautiful (but cold - 15 degrees Celsius) Helsinki.

Day 5 New Year’s Eve

Today we were fortunate to have a free day. Some of us relaxed (i.e. got our nails done), or went shopping and others went to the Flamingo Spa which is a wellness centre and large pool complex with waterslides. The girls had a great time at the waterslides and pool and enjoyed not having to follow the structure of a bus tour. We got back to the hotel mid-afternoon and it was time to get ready for the New Year’s Eve festivities. Our tour guide Lauri arranged for us and the other Canadian teams to celebrate together with a nice dinner in a hall that was built in 1925. Following the dinner we walked over to the town square to enjoy New Year’s Eve festivities. Unfortunately the weather was rather cold (-15 degrees Celsius) and at 10:30 pm we headed back to the hotel. Because we have a game early in the afternoon on New Year’s Day, the girls did not make 12:00 am (11:00 pm curfew), but we toasted the New Year early. It was another great day in Helsinki, and we are ready to compete hard in the tournament which starts tomorrow.