Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

Sochi 2014: Tournament in review

The dust has settled on yet another Olympic hockey tournament, and for the 2nd consecutive games the Canadians have taken the top prize. But first we're going to look at what happened in the knockout phase (The next logical step after last weeks preview).

We'll start with the two feel good stories this round threw at us. The plucky Slovenians and Latvians. In game two of the preliminary round the Slovenian team shocked the world when they thrashed Slovakia 3-1 to claim their first ever Olympic win. They then went on to top the Austrians in the qualification playoff before being dismantled by Sweden in the Quarter Final. The Latvians lost all three prelim games but entered the qualification playoffs as the 11th seed avoiding hosts Russia and, in a Slovenia-Slovakia style shock, beat Switzerland 3-1 to advance to the last eight. They were beaten by Canada with goalie Kristers Gudlevskis giving a superhuman 55 save effort to hold the Canadians to a 2-1 victory.

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A great read

I must admit, I had started to drift away from Ice Hockey and the NHL for some reason (could be the sheer amount of games per season! :P ) But the Olympics and adopted love of Canada, has resparked that interest again.

It was a great tournament full of the twist and turns only the Olympics could provide. I particularly enjoyed the line up of the Semi Finals! Two nordic rivals facing each other, as well as the most famous of Ice Hockey rivalries - Canada vs. USA. Both games provided some entertainment, and I had hopes that Finland might sneak into the final.
(Random fact [accuracy might need checking] - Since the introduction of NHL players into the Olympics, any team that went on to win gold hadn't been unbeaten in group stages) <--- Until now with Canada breaking that!

As for the final, I wasn't expecting Canada to run away with it like that! As a Penguins fan, seeing Crosby and Kunitz seal the gold, made this win a bit more special for me!

Glad you enjoyed it.

If you're into podcasts me and the guys should be making our return tomorrow night. You can listen to older shows to get a flavour if you like. http://betweenthepipespodcast.podomatic.com/

We had two Americans on our last show in January, who we helped create their own podcast. They found us through the Marek vs Wyshynski podcast after Jeff Marek listened to us and gave us a little plug back in December.

I'll have a listen I look forward to it