Day Five: A Free Day, and the Tournament Begins

Please note that we continue to add dozens of photos each day on the photo website: https://picasaweb.google.com/107623788813119326976/HawksInFinland2012#

Thursday was a free day, to be scheduled however the players, host families, and parents wanted. Because Good Friday is a major holiday in Finland, with most shops, restaurants, and schools closed, a number of schools also had just a half day on Thursday. In many cases, the boys went to school with their host players, and found themselves teaching English, playing dodge ball, and exploring the cafeteria. We were told that often the Finnish teachers were very much looking forward to these visits, since they allowed the Finnish students to practice their English.

In the afternoon, most of the players hung out with their host families. Some went shopping at Itekaskus, the largest mall in Scandinavia. Some met up with their parents. Among the Hawks families, there was shopping, sightseeing, and some bonus sleeping. But the afternoon was short, as the boys had to be at the rink for their first tournament games that evening, playing at 6:00 and 6:15 p.m.

A word about the tournament. There was an AA division, in which the Gibson team played, and an A division, in which the Cappo team played. There were four teams in each division: the Hawks, the Vikings, and two others. The tournament started with three round-robin games in each division to determine seedings. Then on Saturday, in the semifinals, the first seed played the fourth seed, the second seed played the third. Then the winners of the semifinals played for the championship, and the losers played for third. Each game against the Hawks began with the national anthems of the US and Finland, and each ended with a handshake by the captains, a handshake of the teams, and an announcement of a game MVP for each team.

The first game for the Gibson team was rough, as they suffered a 5-0 loss at the hands of the Nikkarit (in English, the "Handymen"). Everhett Grimes was named the Hawks MVP for the game. On the other side of the rink, the Cappo team fought to a 2-0 win over HJK. The game was a rough one, as the HJK team seemed less interested in playing than in fighting. Fortunately, that worked in the Hawks' favor--they kept cool heads while HJK spent a lot of time in the penalty box. Goals were scored by Mark Bianchi and Brendan Bolon, DJ Sucher had an assist, and Matt Hollingshead had a shutout in goal. Matt was named the game MVP for the Hawks.