Grey Skies and Goaltending...

After the brief moment of blue sky a couple days ago we have slipped back into the perpetual grey and misty rain of a Finnish fall. It has been unusually warm for this time of year in Finland also. I was told today that usually there is a meter of snow by now. The temperatures was around 7 or 8 ºC today (46 ºF or so). We are expecting snow on Sunday, but I will believe it when I see it.

As you all probably know, a good goaltender in any sport can hide many mistakes and make a good team great. Tonight, our smaller and more experienced goaltender, Jia Dan Dan (right), played outstanding, earning a 37 save shutout and leading us to a 3-0 victory. Although there were a few scary moments, like when a defender pulled a puck off the goal line, our goalie made some amazing saves, including 15 in the third period to hold on for the win. This was the best I have seen her play and the first shutout of the season for our team. We are beginning to play some better defense also, so that helped. Our top forward Sun Rui led the team with a goal and two assists today and again earned the games’ first star.

This game marked the end of the four game series with the two weakest teams in the Finnish league. Next we travel on Sunday to face the Finnish Under 20 National Team in an exhibition game, before beginning series’ with the top four teams in the league. We get five days to train before making the longest journey while in Finland, an eight hour ride to Oulu for a two-day two-game series with Karpät.

On the way home we stopped again at a market/truck stop (ABC) for some snacks and supplies. Strangely, the girls always head to the shampoo aisle when we do this. They smell each bottle and then each buy a couple bottles. It is very odd, maybe there is a shampoo shortage in China? We did find that like Brown and China, there are pandas in Finland too, below is the goalie coach, Liu Qun, posing with the panda at the truck stop.



Tomorrow morning is rest time. We will not practice until the afternoon and then watch some video. So, good night again from Finland!