The Russians...

Today was game two in our five game tournament. We were playing the older, bigger, stronger and more experienced Russian team. We began the day the same as yesterday with a light skate and stretch. The coaching staff went to the rink to scout the German team at 9:30 am in their game vs. Japan. The Germans are also much bigger, but a little slower. They won in a close 2-1 game. After pregame meal at 11:00 we warmed up and got ready for the game. While they were warming up I got a chance to watch about a period of last nights game as we got the video hooked up in my room finally.

As this was officially the opening game of the tournament there was a little cerimony at center ice with the head of winter sports in Harbin dropping the first puck. Also about 1000 school kids all attended as part of their school in matching uniforms. It was quite a site as they filled one entire side of the arena each with their own chinese flag to wave.

In the first period the play was pretty even and we took the first penalty. Seconds into our penalty kill we sprung one of our top players, assistant captain Jin Fengling, and she scored on a short handed breakaway move through the five-hole for a 1-0 lead. Things were looking up until about 20 seconds later when the Russians scored on that same PP on a penalty kill breakdown.

Little did we know, but that would be all the goals that would be scored in the entire game, as we tied a very good Russian team today 1-1. We played much better than yesterday, but our strength did not allow us to get many shots on net. Although the play was quite even the shots were lopsided 34-8 for the Russians and our goaltender Shi Yao played very well.

The spirited nature of the game came out with less than a minute remaining and a close play around our net. A full out fight ensued after a Russian player cross-checked one of our players with all players on the ice involved. It was reminiscent of the now famous Brown vs. Minnesota fight of 2005. When all was sorted out, we had a 5-4 powerplay but could not capitalize in the final 24 seconds of the game.

Tonight, we had our first video meeting and watched the first period of our Japan game. It was very helpful in getting my points across and I think we are moving forward well as a team. Tomorrow we sleep in a little and face Japan again (as the first game was a warm-up of sorts), in another early 2:30 p.m. Match. There is not a lot of time for photo taking behind the bench, so today I leave you with a view of Harbin at night taken from the other evening.