Day Ten - A Tournament Game...and the Jr. Sharks advance.

Thursday, February 19 - We were all greeted with a new white blanket of snow covering this morning, as it snowed several inches throughout the night. White, fluffy snowflakes continued to fall throughout the morning and into the early afternoon...it made for a Winter Wonderland feeling, even when the brisk wind began to blow. But I am sure you don't want to read about a weather report, so I will get on with today's blog posting.
At the Colisee, we were greeting with only six boys: Hiroki, Jake, Calvin, Morgan, Max and Kevin - the remaining boys slept in and were brought directly to the Arpidrome from their hosts' houses a hour before game time. Even though they woke up early, they looked more refreshed than they did yesterday. When asked if they got to bed at the curfew of 9, some responded "yes" immediately. One, that being Hiroki, took his time answering the question...he said that he did go to bed around 9, but didn't go to sleep at that time because he wasn't tired. Well, whatever time he did fall asleep, he too looked more rested today. Before leaving the Colisee, we were able to watch the Lemieux Academy beat Victory Honda - it was a good game.

Pre-Game/Morning Activity
We left the Colisee with the 6 boys and went to the hotel, where we all rested in the lower lobby (check out Calvin's "game-day" dress...we were lovin' those red snowman pj's - thought that should have been the special Quebec Tournament "game-day" dress code for all). The boys went to Subway with Pat Marabella and Coach John for a mid-morning snack. Around 10:45am, we left the hotel and made our way through the snowy streets of Quebec to the Arpidrome for the game against the Rive-Sud Ouest Express.














The Game...San Jose Jr. Sharks PWAA vs. Rive-Sud Ouest Express PWAA

We arrived at the rink about 11:30 (an hour before game time). The remaining boys were there watching the game before ours. These boys, also, looked more rested than the day before, but a couple were still looking a little worn (either due to lack of sleep, fighting a cold or excess fun). The hockey gear was waiting for them in the locker room, so all filed out for warmups before going in to get ready to play. With each game, there is the little known fact: win this game to go on, or loose and your done. Nevertheless, the boys were in pretty good spirits in the locker room, especially with the music cranked up!

Even though the large group of San Jose Jr. Shark parents left Tuesday & Wednesday, there were still a few of us (Venus & Nicole Rockwell, me and Pat Marabella)...but also, our new San Jose Jr. Shark parents: Danny (billet father for Carson & Chris), Carole & Real (billet parents for Tyler & Brian), Sylvain & Sandra (billet parents for Robert & David), and Gaeton (captain for all)...if I missed any, please accept my apologizes. It was an honor to have our billet families cheering for our kids - they were as loud as we were. And the best thing was, they could yell at the referees in French!

Back to the game...Victor was the goalie in today's game. For the first 2 periods, our boys played well. Rive-Sud Ouest scored first 1:50 into the period - but we managed to come back about six minutes later when (Goal 1) - Kyle scored, assisted by Carson and Hiroki. End of the 1st period = 1-1.

We scored two times in the second...(Goal 2) - Carson, assisted by Tyler; and (Goal 3) a power play goal by Carson, assisted by Robert. End of the 2nd period = 3-1 [Great Birthday Presents from Carson...our new teenager on the team]

During the 3rd period, it seemed like we were getting a little tired, as several kids got caught on the ice making it difficult to change - Rive-Sud took advantage and scored @ 12:06. Thus, it was 3-2 with less than 3 minutes to go. (Note: for this tournament 1st & 2nd periods are 10 minutes long; third period, which starts after an ice cut, is 15 minutes long). Those were some long minutes, especially when Rive-Sud pulled their goalie and we had a 6 on 5 situation in our zone for the majority of it. There were 2 empty net chances - 1st by Kyle and the 2nd by Chris - but no luck. When the puck came back in our zone, there were some scary moments out there - but, finally buzzer sounded and we won the game! The Sharks live for another day!

Post-Game activities...and tomorrow's schedule...

After the game, the boys were treated to recovery food of juice and cookies the tournament has been supplying them. Then all but 4 boys went back to their host families house...rest, food, and hopefully some homework. The remaining boys...Calvin, Morgan, Jake and Hiroki, went back to the Colisee with Coach John, Coach Robert & Dr. Marabella until their host families picked them up between 5:30-6pm. I was grateful for the opportunity to be dropped off at the hotel to get a little R&R (and update the blog).

Tomorrow...while we are still waiting for a final count of the boys who will be dropped off in the morning at the Colisee...we plan to get the boys and bring them back to the hotel to rest, planning a quiet morning. Our pregame activites have typically included homework, rest and food...so that will probably be the plan. Our game is scheduled for 4:15 eastern time (1:15 California time). We are playing the Rochester Alliance (from New York).

That is all from the Great White North...Until tomorrow, stay well.