January 4, 2017. Madison, Mississippi. Hockey.

What a day of hockey.  And the good guys won.

The Junior World Championship of hockey is being held in Toronto and Montreal.  We have watched parts of many games this week.  I will watch any sport but I especially like to watch young people play their games, so the junior tournament was perfect for me.  The players have great skill and much energy so the games were excellent.  Right off the bat, it was clear that four teams were the best.  Sweden, Russia, Canada and the USA and sure enough, those four teams were in the semifinals.

The semi finals were held today. The American team beat the Russians in a shootout.  The score was tied at regulation, 3 all,  and still tied after ten minutes of overtime.    The shootout went 7 rounds but the American team won.  You had to feel sorry for the Russians but I was delighted to see the Americans win.  They are an excellent team and it was a pleasure watching them play.  Their quarter final game over the Swiss was not their best game but they won.  The game for the gold will be tomorrow evening.  This was the first time the Americans have beaten the Russians in the medal rounds for a very long time.

This  evening, the Swedish team played the Canadians in the other semi final.  The commentators all thought Sweden was the stronger team.  But they lost.  The Canadians played their best game and from the mid point of the second period they shut down the Swedish attack and the final score was 5 to 2 for Canada.   The game was great fun and not nearly as nerve racking as the afternoon game with the Americans.

So for once, all the good guys won.  Now the Canadians will play against the Americans for the gold medal.  The American team will need to play better against the Canadians than they did against the Swiss and the Russians.   But no matter what, it will be exciting.  I am cheering for both teams.