Day 5 - March 23, 2014

Another beautiful morning today as everyone got up, had a great breakfast and loaded the bus for a guided city tour of Stockholm.  This was time well spent as everyone had the opportunity to see the sights, get their bearings, and relax.  There were a few stops along the way including City Hall, the old town of Stockholm, and one of the royal palaces.  Everyone was excited to see the city in the daylight, and touring is fine - but today is GAME DAY and that is what the girls were looking forward to.  It was easy to feel the excitement of the girls as we finished the city tour and started heading over to the rink.

Today's game was a 45 minute drive outside of Stockholm to a small town called Järna (pop 7000).  It was a nice bus ride through the county, and if you didn't notice the road signs, you would have thought that you were back in Alberta.  Farms, lakes, poplar, spruce and pine trees.  London was great, but this certainly felt much more like home.

We arrived at the rink early, but the Swedes were already there and waiting for us.  They greeted us as we got off of the bus and showed us into the girl's dressing room.  They spared no expense to make us feel at home and had a Ringette Alberta logo on the door, delivered coffee and cookies to the coaches in the room, and made nice programs for our two games in Sweden.  This was all the more impressive given that the changing rooms were in another building separate from the rink.  This meant that the girls, after getting dressed, left their skate guards on and walked across a small road and into the back door of the arena (ice hall).  This design was nothing that any of us had ever seen before, but it worked okay, and allowed both teams to sit outside at half time in the sun for joint photos (in full gear).

All of the Swedish people were very nice to us.  The lady in the arena kitchen kept the coffee in the dressing room fresh.  It was a large crowd, and I noticed some younger ringette players were there watching too.  That was awesome.  The officials were a couple of ladies that play on Sweden's National Ringette Team, and were also on the ice in 2011 when we were first here.  They certainly know ringette and did a fine job.

The Swedes made sure that the game looked and felt like an international contest.  Obviously we played it on the big ice surface, but they also played both national anthems, had a friendly pre-game gift exchange, announced all goals and penalties, and rocked the house during stoppages.  We played four 15 minute quarters with a flood at half time.  Our Sting girls scored early, and took a 5-0 lead after the first quarter.  We lead 7-2 at the half.  11-4 after three quarters and a 15-5 final.  It was a good game and we pressured them hard, especially in the first half.  The Swedish girls had a short bench with less skaters and though they played hard, it was a fast game.  Their goalie was amazing.  An unorthodox method of ring distribution, but she moved very well in the net.  The Sting Player of the Game was Kristen DeMale.  Great job Kristen!

After the game, we returned to Stockholm and many of the girls had a quick shower at the hotel.  Then everyone separated for supper.  All in all a great Sting day!  Tomorrow we play the second game in Sweden and I have no doubt that they will be ready for us.

My observations for the day:

• The 2014 black Sting 3rd jerseys look bitter!
• Our teachers were certainly well represented at the nightly parent debrief and even outlasted yours truly.  I stand corrected.  For now.
• The "Frog Dance" as performed by our guide gets better every time I hear it.
• The conversion from Swedish SEK to our dollars CAD has all of us baffled.  It is very confusing.  The best that I can tell so far is that everything is sold in units of 100 Krona.  The coins in my pocket likely have no monetary value, but may fool vending machines back home?
• Steven please get Traci to a Night Ranger concert!
• Twenty-one Canadian kids singing ABBA songs on the bus wasn't cool 35 years ago and it isn't cool now.  Bryan Adams, Nickleback and Paul Brandt were nice additions to the bus karaoke. Eh! 

(A great photo from yesterday - Day 4)

(Sting rocks the coffee/pastry shop!)