The Canada Cup was a whirlwind weekend of floorball with more happening than one could keep track off. With four courts of floorball in one venue, you didn’t have to walk far to pick the game of your choice.
In Men’s elite, it was nice to see that the teams were mostly very well matched. The level of play seems to be growing as games were close and anyone could have gone to the finals, with the exception of Montreal’s Red Phoenix, who was easily the best team there and clearly going to the finals. The gold medal winners were like a fine oiled machine in perfect motion that had scoring power galore. Newly added team member, Patrice Pare, was tournament scoring leader with 17 goals and a total of 23 points despite the fact he has just recently started playing floorball. Red Phoenix played smart, tactical and knew how to break down their opponent.
Due to earlier suspensions, Red Phoenix had only 7 players and still won gold . MVP Simone Leblanc played the entire 60 minutes in the finals and did not show any sign of slowing down or fatigue, even in his 7th game.
All I can say is he must be super human.
BC HOME BOYS
Montreal/Vancouver United gelled nicely and were really coming on strong at the end of round robin. However, their dreams were cut short in the quarter finals losing a tough match to the Lemmins, silver medal winners.
Chris Mohn was awesome in net, allowing only two goals in his two round robin apperances. Chirs had an amazing 92.9% save average and was the main reason we could pull off a 1-1 tie against TFC when they were all over us in the first period. Markus Moisio, yet again, gave his all every second he was on the court. This quickly rubbed off on the rest of the team and was key in building team spirit of a group of guys who didn’t know each other at the start. Blair Zimmerman used his speed to play defensively all over the court. With the help of his linemates, Chris and Joe, they moved the ball around nicely in the offensive zone and had some beautiful one timer goals from the slot, totaling 19 points in 4 matches.
KIDS and YOUTH
As I refereed kids, I got to see much of the play first hand. There were many smiling faces and some impressive plays at the same time. One young lad picked the top corner from well behind the center line to simply go over the “peewee” goalie. Kudos to all the coaches, including Bret Stein, for taking time to coach a group of youngsters in a game they obviously love. The kids showed better sportsmanship and respect for the rules than some of the adult teams.
For more details and results of all divisions, please go to www.thecanadacup.com
Easter Long Weekend 2009! Mark you calendars and don’t miss a great weekend of floorball. There is a spot for everybody!
Thanks Juha and all of the many volunteers and referees who made the Canada Cup happen.