Finland Day 8 – Happy New Year!

World Junior Wrap-up

This wrapped up the Group play round robin portion of the World Junior Championship. We took in the games at Hartwall Arena for Group B. 

In the early game, Russia beat a very game Slovakia 2-1. If the Slovaks play that well against Sweden in the Quarterfinals they have a chance for an upset.

The late game was an exciting affair with Finland coming out on top of the Czechs 5-4. It went back and forth and the youth of team Finland led the way with Patrik Laine being named player of the game with the game winning goal and Jesse Puljujarvi adding two goals, including the game tying tally.

  
We decided to change it up for the late game and dine in the Silver Star Cafe in the Arena. It was a nice meal with s good view of the action. 

  
Over in Group A, Team USA edged Denmark 4-1 and Sweden handled Canada 5-2.

These results set up Quarterfinal matchups for Saturday, as well as putting Belarus and Switzerland into the relegation round. The Hartwall Arena games will see Russia take on Denmark early and Finland go up against Canada in the evening. Over at Helsinki Ice Hall, Sweden will play Slovakia and the late game will feature USA versus the Czech Republic.

Happy New Year 2016

Along with the hockey, we also spent New Years Eve at Senate Square to ring in the New Year with thousands of Finns!

It was a fun time, even if most of the speaking and singing were in Finnish. We saw a Finnish pop star perform, the Finland ballet, and enjoyed an awesome fireworks show at midnight in front of Helsinki Cathedral. My tweet was the first one shown on the broadcast of the event! So I’ve got that going for me.

We danced a little after midnight, but it became more of a free for all, crowd body checking event, so we headed off into the night.

It was a bit of a challenge to find our bus, but we made it home nicely. Then it was just time for the Sabres faceoff against the Islanders on NHL GameCenter Live. Unfortunately the Buffalo boys could not give us a win.

New Years Day is an off day for the tournament and we will enjoy some relaxing. We might head into town as well, but we are definitely trying out the sauna that is in our apartment!