The following is a guest post from Greg Thompson, member of Team USA competing at the 2013 IIHF Inline World Championships. Greg has been involved with either the IIHF or FIRS World Championships since 2005. Prior to that, he was helping Lindenwood University win four consecutive national championships from 2004-2007. Below is his first hand experience of playing in the 2013 IIHF Inline World Championships.
Great today for USA Roller Hockey but there is a long road ahead of us. It is always a huge rivalry when you match up against Canada in any type of hockey. Canada is known for a powerhouse in the hockey world and they are always contenders.
Today the boys came out flying and we knew we had to get some early goals on Canada. Pat Cannone (NY) started the scoring off with a nice far side shot to give us the 1-0 lead. Minutes later Cody Kettler (MO) buried a nice high glove shot on a 2 on 1 rush. However, Canada wouldn’t go away that easy! Canada buried a breakaway goal to end the first half of play to cut the score in half.
With momentum going into the second half, Canada tied the game at 2-2 with a nifty one on one move. Cannone answered with a beautiful one on one move then a quick shot to his backhand to give us the 3-2 lead. Power plays were going back and fourth and we finally cashed in on one. Matt White (CA) launched a one timer from the point that went upstairs on Canada’s goaltender. Shortly after, Junior Cadiz (CA) dangled his way to the net and had a highlight real goal to put USA up by a 5-2 score.
Things got a little rough at the end of the game as we thought. Canada scored a late goal to make the score 5-3 on a nice shot through a screen. Goaltender Nick Maricic (CA) and NCAA Frozen Four champion stood on his head and played well in between the pipes.
Pat Cannone (NY) received player of the game for the USA and goaltender Brett Leggat received honors for Canada.
TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY! Slovakia is next………
