SUNDAY FEBRUARY 08 - DAY SEVEN| GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY

A late night with an early start tothe day!  We departed the hotel at 5:30AM this morning to head to the rink to load our equipment which had hung to dry overnight.  Than it was off to Munich airport for our 9 hour voyage back to Toronto.  Needless to say, sleeping occupied most of the plane ride home!
Overall, it was an excellent week of good hockey, laughing, learning and enjoying the moments of being part of the Under 22 TeamCanada.

Until next time, keep your stick on the ice!

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 07 - DAY SIX| GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY

Today was a jam packed day!  Most of us woke up early at 7:45AM for breakfast and then utilized free time prior to our noon pre game skate to walk around and shop in downtown Bad Tolz.  After the skate, we returned to the hotel for our pre game meal and some rest time prior to the championship game against Team Germany.

After a few short pre game speeches by the Air Canada Cup host committee, the game began and it sure was an exciting one!  After the first period, we were trailing 2-0, but regrouped at intermission.  We pulled up our socks a bit in the second period and had tied the game heading into the third.  Despite the refereeing not being in our favour (we trailed 3-2 at the midpoint of the third following a German powerplay goal on a 5 on 3 advantage), we fought through the adversity before coming back to score three times in the last 2:57 to post a come from behind 5-3 win.  We certainly kept the fans on the edge of their seats!

After the presentation of the Air Canada Cup trophy, team photos and other dressing room celebrations, we headed upstairs to the arena restaurant for dinner and party with the other teams.

It was a long and exciting day.  Once again, it was an awesome feeling to wear the Team Canada jersey and hold a championship trophy.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 06 - DAY FIVE| GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY

We woke up at 7:45AM at our new hotel in Bad Tolz, Germany to a wonderfully warm morning.  After a 8AM breakfast, we headed to the brand new Bad Tolz arena for our pre game skate.  The rink just opened a couple of weeks ago and has already hosted a Germany-Austria men's game in front of a soldout crowd of 4500 prior to our Air Canada Cup tournament.

After practice, the bus driver took us an alternate way though downtown Bad Tolz before arriving back at the hotel for our pre game meal.  Bad Tolz is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and has a fast flowing river separating one side of town from the other.

Our game against Switzerland started slowly in the first period.  However, the pace heightened in the second period and we generated tons of great scoring opportunities and were successful on most of them.  We ended up winning the game 6-0. 

After a scrumptious dinner prepared by the hotel, we had some time to explore downtown and enjoy some of the maginicent scenery of the Bavaria region under a full moon.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 05 - DAY FOUR| GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY

After a wonderful sleep in and breakfast at the arena in Romanshorn, we
loaded the bus and headed on a very scenic four-hour bus ride through the
Alps passing through a corner of Austria and then on to Germany.  We had a
short break at the Austrian border while customs stamped all 30 of our
passports!  We arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen eager to get off the bus,
breathe the alpine air and physically prepare for our game against Team
Finland.

The game went well as we dominated territorially and had some great scoring
opportunities.  We are beginning to gel better as a team.  We won 6-1 with
four of our goals going to first time U22 Team Canada goal scorers - Chelsea
Grills, Bobbi Jo Slusar, Kerri Wallace and Marieve Provost.

After the game, both teams enjoyed an authentic German dinner at a quaint
Bavarian style restaurant in Garmisch.   We then boarded the bus for another
hour trip to Bad Tolz where we will play the rest of our games.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 04 - DAY THREE| ROMANSHORN, SWITZERLAND

It was an early morning start with the pre game skate at 8AM!  That meant we
were warming up outside under a rising Swiss sun.  After practice we had a
few hours of free time to nap, walk around and prepare for our first game
against Team Switzerland.

The game went well.  We won 5-0 which was a good start to lead into the
tournament that starts tomorrow.  Kaley Hall and Ashley Riggs scored their
first goals as members of the U22 Team Canada.

After dinner, we had a few hours to spend walking around Romanshorn in
search of vunderbar Swiss chocolate!

We are looking forward to tomorrow morning when we will bus through the Alps
to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for our first game of the Air Canada Cup against
Team Finland.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 03 - DAY TWO | ROMANSHORN, SWITZERLAND

Guten Tag - good day. All our luggage has now arrived. Today we practiced twice and utilized the ice times to gel as a team and get prepared for tomorrow's exhibition game against Team Switzerland.

After a delightful team dinner at the rink, we jumped on the bus and headed to 1001 Cosmic Bowling 15 minutes away in Amriswil. We bowled in 5 teams of 6 players each. To our suprise, there were some very talented bowlers in the group. With a little bit of fine tuning, they could soon be eligible for the pro 10 pin circuit.

Overall, it was a vunderbar - wonderful - day and we look forward to playing a game tomorrow on Wednesday

MONDAY FEBRUARY 02- DAY ONE | ROMANSHORN, SWITZERLAND

After a long day of travelling, we have made it and all of our luggage too - well, almost..........we are still waiting for one more bag. Annie Guay is eagerly awaiting Tuesday afternoon practice when she will have full equipment for the first time.

We certainly can not complain about the long walk to the arena considering that our accommodations are right above the ice surface. We have a panoramic ice view right outside our dorm rooms. We eat all of our meals right above the rink too, so it is great to have everything all under one roof.
We take advantage of every chance we get to catch a glimpse of the Swiss Alps and so far we have been able to do that during our team warm-ups outside. It is warmer out there than it is inside. It was 11 degrees when we arrived on Monday.

Switzerland is vunderbar - wonderful - and we are all looking forward to our stay here. Until next time – guten tag - good day.