Congatulations on the World Junior hockey gold medal! It was a hard fought game and U.S.A. deserved the win!
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Congatulations on the World Junior hockey gold medal! It was a hard fought game and U.S.A. deserved the win!
The part that sucks the most is that the Americans didn't score the winning goal:( We did, on ourselves:mad: Oh well its just a kids game after all:)
It's about time we beat Canada in hockey :D
USA
I heard that there were a couple of Canadian kids playing on the US Team because they weren't guaranteed enough ice time with Team Canada.
If true, doesn't that mean we just lost to ourselves? :D
And don't forget, the majority of NHL players are still Canadian, so we are still handily in control of the sport (we have to let them win once in while or they might take their rinks and go home). ;) :D
YES!!!
Wasn't the first goal USA scored off the ref? And the winning goal was scored off one of the Canadian players. That doesn't sound deserving to me :D :p
Congrats to the USA team anyway.
Ummmmmm Sheri, I wouldn't be speaking of the winning goal being scored ON OURSELVES :eek: .......... How embarassing :rolleyes:
Did you see the Canadian Goalie's mask?? It was designed by a BC kid
Masking His Ambition
For Tanner Klassen getting a chance to combine the two things he loves best in the world -- hockey and art -- is a dream come true.
Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist
Monday, January 05, 2004
CREDIT: Ken Zaharia, Campbell River Courier-Islander
Tanner Klassen was washing dishes at the Fusilli Grill in Campbell River last month when inspiration finally struck.
For days, the 18-year-old Carihi secondary school student had been thinking about the contest, trying to come up with something original. Now, with stacks of dirty dishes waiting, and no time to sketch, he did the only thing he could do: He called home.
"Mom," he said. "Write this down!"
"What?"
"Loonie."
"OK," she said, grabbing a piece of paper. "What is all this about?"
"It's my idea for the mask."
A week earlier, Klassen had been picking up his 15-year-old brother, Dillon, from the dentist when he heard on the radio about the Design-A-Mask Contest sponsored by Hockey Canada and ITECH Hockey. The winning entry would be worn by one of Canada's junior team goalies at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland, and the lucky contestant would get a copy of the mask signed by all the team members.
If there are two things that Tanner Klassen loves in this world, it's art and hockey.
The first he has done all his life, and he hopes, eventually, to make it his career. The second love he shared with his father, Will, who died almost four years ago after a long, painful battle with multiple sclerosis.
Kathie Klassen says hockey bonded her late husband and Tanner. "So it's been really important for him to hold on to that hockey."
Earlier this year, Tanner and his family made a pilgrimage to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, where once again he read the story of the lucky loonie that Canadian ice-makers buried under the rink at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Canada, of course, went on to win gold medals in both men's and women's ice hockey, and a legend was born.
The story popped into Tanner's head again as he stood in the kitchen of the Fusilli Grill on Nov. 16. That night, he went home and set to work on his design, using pen and pencil crayon to sketch the loonie onto the mask depicted in the contest entry form.
The next day, he brought it home from school and showed it to his mother.
"When I saw it," Kathie recalls, "I went, 'This is it. You've got to send this in.' Because, of course, I knew the same myth."
By then, it was Nov. 17 and the entries were due the next day. Tanner wrote a letter asking the judges to excuse his lateness, and sent the package by courier to Quebec. Then, just to be sure, he called and left a voice message.
"He said, 'Please wait for my design. I think I have the winner,'" Kathie says. "I thought it was rather bold of him, but anyways, that's what he said.
"Then we kind of just didn't want to think about it for a while."
On Nov. 27, Kathie was checking her e-mails late at night when she noticed a message from ITECH Hockey. Tanner was at work, so Kathie opened the message.
"Tanner," it said. "Congratulations, you have been chosen as the winner of the Hockey Canada and ITECH Hockey's collaborative Design-A-Mask contest. Your Loonie design stood out among the hundreds of entries received for its uniquely Canadian reference and homage to the last Olympic gold medal game."
That night, Kathie waited up until Tanner got home from the restaurant, then they jumped around the house together, celebrating.
The highlight, though, came the day Marc-Andre Fleury wore the mask in Canada's opening game against Finland at the world championships on Dec. 26.
"That's all I was waiting for was to see it on TV," Tanner says. "I was so happy to see it on international TV like that."
So were the people of Campbell River.
"What's really surprising to me is the effect it's had on the rest of our little town," Kathie says. "It's pretty amazing. We've been a little bit overwhelmed. Campbell River's not that big, but people that I didn't know knew us, were coming up to us and saying, 'It's great!' and 'Congratulations' and 'Good on you!"
Already, Tanner has received design work because of the publicity. And this morning, he and his family will gather around the television in hopes the loonie works its magic one more time.
In many ways, it already has for Tanner. He had hoped to play junior himself one day in the sport his father loved.
Now, he's part of the national team at the world championships -- another chapter in the growing legend of Canada's lucky loonie.
Don't suppose you found a picture of it? Sounds pretty cool. How exciting for Tanner!