Trophy Time!

Trophy
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

Last weekend Hannah was asked to join another girls team (The Canadiens) in a hockey tournament in Fort Frances, as they were short players. The girls played well, finishing up the round robin with 2 wins and 1 loss (a 4-3 decision). Our goaltending was solid, but couldn't quite put the puck in the net in the semi-final game (lost 2-1) or in the Consolation final (lost 2-1) and the girls ended up a respectable 4th out of 6. The trip was a blast, and all the girls had a great time!

That's it for tournaments for this year!

Can't type more atm, I have a rink to go out and shovel!

Oooh! Video!

I saw one of my fellow rink makers with some video of his kid skating on their rink... Figured out how to do it - so here's a test one I made last year -Hannahs first year of hockey.

Expect more soon! :D

The Cold Continues...

unabaited. Although we are no longer hovering in the -40C area, we're still in the low -20c's.... It's really the windchill that is the problem....

That being said, I could no longer keep Hannah off the rink this week... Twice after I picked her up from school she BEGGED to go put on the skates and hit the ice. I relented, only after she was thoroughly bundled up. Even then, it was only for a brief period of time - 30-45mins max.

We did flood on Friday the 9th- it was about -20C outside. That's about 5-10 degrees colder than what I normally flood at - but the rink needed water. There were 5 sizable cracks that ran through the rink caused by the extreme cold the last few weeks - and they needed to be filled. Unfortunately, the flood wasn't the greatest. The temp was cold enough that the water was freezing before I was able to complete a full pass (across the rink). This basically caused some ridgelines to develop - the first time I've had that problem. The rink itself the next day, was in much better condition overall though.... And we did skate on Saturday.

Lesson learned:

If its around -20C do not flood unless a)perhaps using HOT water or b) fill large buckets and dump them to get a complete coverage to avoid those ridge lines. Personally, I'll stick to flooding between -10C to -15C. That way, I get a nice, even layer of ice!

Oh, and Hannah has another hockey tournament this weekend... She was picked up to play on another team for a tournament in Fort Frances. Wish us luck!

Current Temp: -18C

Waiting on some warmth...

Night Time in Canada
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

The last few days it has been cold here. Yes, I know I live in NW Ontario. And it is supposed to be cold in February. But -40C to -50C is a bit much, even for us hardy Canadians.

So we wait for warmer temperatures to arrive, so that we can spend even a few minutes upon the ice without worrying about frostbite.

Current Temp: -42C (-48C overnight)

To The Victors!

Hannah-medal
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

Go the spoils. Or something along those lines.

Last weekend was my daughters hockey tournament in Dryden, Ontario (about 3.5 hrs west of home). Our girls went undefeated (4-0) before capturing the championship during a nail-biting 3-2 win in the final against a very good Dryden All-Star Leafs team!

Congrats to the Leafs and to Hannah! Everyone is proud of you!

To be, or Not to be...

Hannah-goalie3
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

A goalie... That is the question.

With our regular goalie out sick, my little defenceman decided she wanted to try and play goalie tonight... So before the game, we got her all dressed up in the goalie gear and spent 1/2 hour shooting the pucks around and having fun.

It was really too cold to be out much longer than that - it's been very cold and windy here the last week. Fortunately, the ice is in perfect condition, and with the little snow fall we've had... I haven't even had to shovel. :)

Current Temp: -12C (-20C Windchill)

Hockey Day in Canada

Hockey Day in Canada
Originally uploaded by Big Swede Guy.

What an awesome day... For my American friends who are unfamiliar with "Hockey Day in Canada"... it's basically a celebration of hockey that the CBC promotes. All 6 Canadian NHL teams play each other over the course of the day - an afternoon, an evening and a night game. There are highlights and stories and such all during the day - which is telecast from a "host city" chosen by CBC. This year, it was the small town of Nelson BC. I thought this would be a great day to invite folks over to spend the afternoon playing boot hockey and watching some NHL games. The weather was perfect (-12C, no wind and sunny), plenty of beverages were consumed, food was eaten and almost no one was hurt in the process (Paul who had a hard time standing on the ice).

I'm definately going to make this a yearly event!