We arrived in Bratislava late Friday afternoon and made our way to the tournament hotel. Surprisingly it’s quite nice and everyone is very friendly. Everyone is pretty excited as new faces arrive every few minutes and greeting are exchanged between old teammates and new.

We get together as a team for the first time around 8:30 pm. We are missing two Swiss talents, Phil Schuler and Sacha Weber. We learn they will not join the team until after our first exhibition match, schedule to take place at 9:30 am on Saturday morning.

We receive all of our gear, everything from uniforms to bags, apparel and accessories. Everyone start to look like we are on the same team as we sit in on our first team meeting. The strategy discussion is very light - we go over some basics and what to expect from our early morning opponent, Slovakia. Slovakia has been preparing for some time and just finished losing by a narrow margin and tying the B-Division, Polish National Team, who won the C-Division in 2006.

We finally address what will be done with the 5 field players from Quebec, who are all part of the seven-time (consecutive and reigning) Canadian Ball Hockey Champion Red Phoenix team. They are confident playing the system the are used to will be the best way for them to contribute. Johan Oesterman, returning head coach, agrees and the Quebec line is scheduled to remain a unit, playing a different system than the other two lines. The five man units meet to quickly chat and we leave for bed.

Early the next morning, we meet for breakfast. Everyone is very excited to play, although we complain about not sleeping well and being jet-lagged. We arrive at the rink just before nine and have an abbreviated warm-up lead by returning captain Eric Kail and assistant Lauri Hannelius. We take the court, the national athems are played and the first whistle is blown. In an amazing start, we go up 3-0, catching the Slovaks totally off guard. It certainly wasn’t the force we expected to be up against given that Slovakia had prepared and we were starting tired and unfamiliar with each other - not even a practice under our belts before the first shift. The first period ended 4-1 with Canada in complete control.

The second period shifted. The Slovaks began playing a very physical and at times uncontrolled game. The referees did not find issue with the game as fouls and penalties simply weren’t being called. The Slovaks scored once before the period was out cutting the lead to 4-2. Goaltender Martin Belanger (Red Phoenix, Quebec) switched with Sam Garrison at the midpoint of the game having surrendered only two goals.

The third period was a completely different game. The Slovaks relentlessly forechecked and generated chance after chance creating many turnovers. Goaltender, Sam was hung out to dry on several occassions as a two goal lead turned into a two goal deficit. The pressure continued until the Slovaks found themselves short-handed a couple of times toward the end of the game. We couldn’t find the back of the net although we applied some consistent pressure.

It was like three different games were played, one in each period. In the end we fell 6-4 in a game we all felt slip through our hands. There are lots of things being discussed as to why things turned sour but we have time to work things out. I think the concensus is that this may be a blessing in disguise. Fine tuning our game now and figuring out how we can be most effective before we get into more important matches is far better than realizing we need to make adjustments after it’s too late.

We still have our heads up and look forward to our match against the Slovakian Club Champion Hurricanes tomorrow. We will meet and practice later today. With so many issues to tackle given our late game collapse, it will be interesting to see how the coach responds. The big question on everyone’s mind at the moment concerns the Quebec, Red Phoenix line. Will they stay a unit and if so, will they continue to play their ball hockey system. It won’t be too long before we find out and collectively take our game to the next level.

Looking forward to our next game!