Sweden Wins IIHF 2012 World Junior Championships
After three periods of hockey in which the Swedes thoroughly out-shot the Russians 50-16, the score was still 0 – 0 at the end of regulation time. The Swedes have not won a World Junior Gold since 1981 but I bet there will be plenty of celebration in Sweden now. In the overtime period, the Ottawa Senators 1st round draft pick, Swedish player Mika Zibanejad, pounced on a loose puck turnover at the Russian blue line and streaked in on the Russian netminder Mika Zibanejad and lifted a sweet backhander into the top corner. I was happy to see that the final goal was a clean, non-controversial goal but it certainly must be tough to be a goaltender who stops 58 shots in one night and still ends up on the losing end of the game.
Congratulations to the Swedish team.
Sorry, I don’t have a Swedish Hockey image to go with this post. I looked to see if I had a stamp from 1981 but this is the most recent Swedish stamp that I have from the days when a long ago Swedish pen-pal would send over stamps for my collection. Both reflect a long time ago. Congrats again. Always nice to finish in first on the world stage especially after so many second place finishes. Tonight was a fairytale finish that deserves a place beside a fairytale stamp.
Hopefully, no Swedes complain about me substituting a shot of a Swedish kayaking competitor from the World Kayaking Championships of a few years ago. I haven’t photographed any Swedish hockey players in my lifetime.
Hope my Swedish photography contacts get enough sleep.
– www.flickr.com/photos/sweron/ (R A Pyke “SweRon” in Orebo, Sweden)
– www.flickr.com/photos/11647567@N00/ (“Antranswe” of Falkensberg)
– www.flickr.com/photos/p1r/ (Petter Duvander “p1R” in Lund, Sweden)
– www.flickr.com/photos/14699363@N06/ (“JohnDan1” in Stockholm, Sweden)
Grattis på hockey segern.
