It will be a game permanently etched into Canadian hockey fans’ memories, and a game that will be referenced over and over again by hockey pundits whenever Canadian hockey teams play on the international level in decades to come.
To lose a hockey game, a sport Canada proudly lays claim as its own, after going up three goals to none heading into the third period is simply unforgivable to most fans of the game. That was the case in the finals of IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships on Jan. 5, where Canada took on Russia in the gold medal match-up.
For Team Canada, the fateful final game came just days after it had beat the Americans on their home ice by a very satisfying 4-1, which left most in the country with no doubt of the Canadians’ superiority.
No one had expected the Russians to come back with five unanswered goals in the last 18 minutes of the game, accomplishing the biggest comeback in world junior hockey history.
It was a nigh impossible feat, unless you are the Russian junior hockey team playing against a heavily-favored team, a team for which most of the spectators in the HSBC arena in Buffalo, N.Y. were cheering.
All Team Canada had to do was to hang on for another 20 minutes after going up three goals, but somehow the team went into a nosedive of epic proportions to hand the overjoyed Russians their 13th goal medal in the tournament’s 35 year history.
What exactly went wrong?
Some fans say Canada’s head coach, Dave Cameron, was outcoached in the third period by not calling a time out to re-adjust the team’s game plan after the Russians scored two goals.
Others say that Team Canada became too confident, and relaxed their game after going up three goals to nothing, or that the team simply ran out of steam near the end of the second period after playing a vigorous, Canadian-style hockey for almost 40 minutes.
Regardless of what went wrong, the loss may have blemished Team Canada’s superb double gold medal wins in hockey during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Any team would be happy to get a silver medal at an international sporting event, but anything but a gold medal may prove to be too hard to swallow for hockey-mad Canada.
