I scored some pretty sweet IIHF World Junior Championship tickets to the Russia vs Finland game, just to the right of the net behind Finland, which was a particularly good spot to watch Russia drill shot after shot on goal. Russia pretty much took the offensive stance early on in the game and won it 5-2, but the game was interesting, with Finland working the puck up ice a lot of the time but hardly ever taking the shot in front of the net. Russia seemed to get a shot on goal every time their stick touched a puck – including a couple of really incredible slapshots from the defencemen that caromed off the posts and the glass and the goalie’s head.

Anyhow – kudos to both teams for playing really good clean hockey – no fighting and lots of effort despite the early Russian lead.

I’d post a picture, but sadly, cameras were not allowed in the arena, which I think is a lame policy. Instead, here’s a terrible 30 second mouse painting. Can you see the intensity in the Russian player’s eyes?