July 30 2010

Yahoo! Weather - London, UK

Currently:	Partly Cloudy, 66°F (feels like 66°F)
Wind:	8mph, NNE
Sunrise:	5:19 am
Sunset:	8:51 pm

Women provide our ice hockey gold

Canadian Women dominate the United States 2-0 for GoldCanada’s Women’s Hockey Team beat the United States 2-0 in the Gold Medal Final Friday. This was Canada’s third straight Olympic Gold.

The team owes much of its final game success to two stars: Goaltender Shannon Szabados was impenetrable, making 28 saves, and teenage puck wizard Marie-Philip Poulin scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over the Americans at Canada Hockey Place. Poulin had been placed on the fourth line because she was so young, but in this game she proved her worth.

The Canadians kept strong during a number of two-man advantages, with Hayley Wickenheiser even blocking a shot with the Maple Leaf Crest on her jersey.

Canadian forward Meghan Agosta, who finished tied for the Olympic goal-scoring lead with nine, was named tournament MVP. Szabados was voted best goaltender, after having two shutouts in elimination games.

Do it like a lady

The Canadian women, who started their Olympic celebration in the dressing room, were criticized for posing with beer cans and cigars for photos by the ice. Captain Hayley Wickenheiser apologized for the image portrayed, but said it was just harmless celebratory fun.

"All I have to say is get real. Get real because you know, we were enjoying the moment," she said with a laugh. "It probably was not the right thing to be on the ice doing that, but in the moment you get caught up and things happen. And trust me, there's lots worse things that go on at the Olympics, so everybody just take a big breath and chill out because it's not a big deal."

John Furlong, CEO of VANOC, said the incident is being blown up.

"I honestly thought it was young kids who were happy. They had a good time, they let their hair down a little bit and yes a few things happened on the ice that probably were a bit inappropriate - and then they said they are sorry," he said.

"They are great ambassadors for the country and, you know what, they poured everything they had into being gold-medal champions at the Olympic Games and we shouldn't diminish what they did for a moment."

The women should be proud of their hard work and results. I hope that they take this chance to celebrate with friends and family as Olympic Champions.

Strong in the Semis

I was lucky enough to attend the women’s semi-final game against Finland (who ended up winning the bronze medal). The Canucks won 5-0 over Finland, their 5^th goal of the game, being their 46^th goal of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, setting a record for most goals in the Olympics.

Here is some footage I shot while at the game.

submitted by JulieSB on February 27th 2010

JulieSB's blog
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