Bruce's Girls

Bruce's Girls
Originally uploaded by Bruce Brososky.

Enjoying a fine winter's day in central Alberta, at a place called Hasse Lake, which is south and west of Stony Plain. It's a day use camping, fishing, and hiking park in Parkland County. It's also a great place to walk the dog! This is actually on of the few pictures I have of our dog, Eva, sitting pretty and looking at the camera. She's normally too bashful and slinks away from the camera. Clearly, when we're outside, things are less stressful and she's much easier to capture on film (or memory card :-)).

CANADA WINS GOLD!

...again. This is the third straight IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal for Canada, and in that stretch, they've gone 18 straight games without a loss. Defeating Russia 4-2, Canada captured its thirteenth gold medal in the history of the championships. Canada had not won a tournament outside of North America since 1997, so the challenge for this team was to erase that recent mark of deficiency. Canada also collected a number of individual awards, in particular, goaltender Carey Price who was voted All Star goaltender, top goaltender, and tournament MVP.

Team USA defeated Sweden earlier in the day, as the U.S. captured its first bronze medal at the WJC. Defenseman Eric Johnson of Team USA was voted to the All Star team and was chosen as Top Defenseman in the tournament. It's hard to believe, but Sweden has not won a medal at the WJC in the last five years, although they've improved their placing by one position each year... which means they could win the bronze next year if the trend continues.

This was - and usually is - a great tournament and the hockey is top quality. The players compete for the love of the sport and for each other, and the games are often very entertaining.

Congratulations Team Canada!

TEAM CANADA WINS!!!

Team Canada wins in a shootout over Team USA at the IIHF world Junior Championships in Sweden. The game was tight, even thought the Americans dominated play for long stretches. Cary Price, Team Canada's goaltender was outstanding, as was his counterpart for the USA, Jeff Frazee. The goalies were the players of the game for their respective teams, even though the shootout went to seven rounds. The USA outshot Canada 12-2 in the 10 minute overtime, due to a penalty to Team Canada.

It was an exciting game and had almost everything one could ask for in a world championship level tournament. Canada now has a chance to win gold for the third consecutive year, as they face either Sweden or Russia in the final on Friday.

GO CANADA GO!