Team Canada has returned from the recent Under 19 World Floorball Championships in Turku & Raisio, Finland.
Team Canada, a newcomer to the sport of Floorball, competed in the B-Division with the following countries:
- Germany
- Poland
- Russia
- Estonia
- Japan
- Hungary
- Austria
The A-Division, featured the best 8 Floorball countries in the World:
- Sweden
- Finland
- Switzerland
- Czech Republic
- Latvia
- Slovakia
- Denmark
- Norway
Team
Canada was made up from a mixture of players from the Provincial
federations of Alberta, BC, Quebec and Ontario. Tryouts were held last
fall and the influence of Major Midget Hockey players on this inaugural
U19 National Team was truly evident as more than half of the team had
just completed their championship seasons with teams from Ontario &
BC; Sherwood Saints & Hamilton Reps were victorious in their
respective leagues in Ontario, while the Hollyburn Huskies and the NW
Giants were also Provincial Champions. It was from these hockey teams
that the scoring punch for the U19 National Floorball Team would come.
So,
to say that this U19 team had some young hockey talent would be an
understatement, Andrew Radjenovic, Joel Inouye, Malcolm Mckinney, and
Lyndon Stanwood, who are making names for themselves in the elite
hockey circles, can now add Team Canada Floorball to their resumes.
Hockey
Canada Skills Academies from across the country are churning out some
exceptional hockey talent, and it is no coincidence that these hockey
academies are utilizing Floorball as a skills development system to
improve: a) footspeed b) stickhandling c) body position d) hand-eye
finesse e) agility
It
is this cross-development technique that made Canada so competitive in
Floorball with so little experience at the International Level. Canada
has always produced top-tier ball hockey teams, but it will be at least
ten years before we will be able to challenge the top 5 Floorball
nations, who have been playing Floorball for nearly 25 years.
Floorball
is a unique brand of ball hockey. Its focus is speed, skill, and
superior stickhandling. Canada is clearly a force to reckoned with on
the floor when playing their intense hockey style in the B-Division.
However, the top floorball nations in the A-Division have so much
ball-control that their style of play resembles basketball or soccer in
how they set-up their tactical systems. Canada simply does not have
the agility, footspeed, or the necessary ball control at this time to
compete at that A-Division level, and we have many years of training to
look forward to, so that we can make the adjustments to play them
without being embarrassed on the scoreboard.
The
Tournament for Team Canada commenced in Helsinki, with a couple of
exhibition games against some Junior teams from Finland, the results
were two losses:
The Team would then travel to WFC host city, Turku Finland to play
FBC Turku in their third and final exhibition match. They would compete hard, but come up short with a 5-7 loss.
Many
valuable lessons were learned in these exhibition games, and it was
thrilling to see Team Canada come together, as a Team for the first
time since Floorball Canada had selected this group of players,
separated by vast distances, who had a common link of ice hockey, but
had not been able to meet and play together in the Floorball arena.
Coaches
Anthony Herrington (Sherwood Hockey Academy) and Kevin Bathurst (Hockey
Canada) had prepared their Team as well as possible in advance of their
trip to Finland by using technology, facebook, email, and youtube. To
see the guys finally suit up in their Team Canada uniforms in these
exhibition games proved, ultimately, to be the best possible method to
bring it all together. The Team Canada spirit was instilled amongst
these 20 young men and the first game against Germany showed that all
the preparations were about to pay off.
Game 1 - Team Canada vs Team Germany 5-5- TIE
The
Fighting Spirit of the Canadian team shocked the entire German nation
with a near win against a Team that clearly had more experience in
Floorball than we did. In the Final 2 minutes of the game, Canada
would take the lead 5-4. A big celebration ensued. It was with 11
seconds left on the clock that Germany would stun the Canadian
Goaltender Mike Hayward with a screened blast, top shelf. The game
ended in a tie. It was nearly a major upset, but surely a minor one in
the eyes of the German Floorball community as they expected to beat
Canada with relative ease.
Game 2- Team Canada vs Team Russia 3-4- Loss
Building
upon their tie and tapping in to the tradition and mystique of the
Canada vs Russia hockey battles, Team Canada, led by standout forwards
Joel Inouye and Andrew Radjenovic, looked very competitive. Joel
scored two goals. Roger Sherwood scored a late goal to get within 1,
however, it was the Russian goaltender that stood tall in the nets
facing 14 shots in third period alone. Team Canada, not for a lack of
total effort, lost the game 3-4.
Of
note, there were nearly 400 screaming young Finnish school students in
attendance to cheer on the Canadian Team. It was truly heartwarming
and the entire Canadian Team were exceptionally grateful for the act of
support.
Game 3- Team Canada vs Team Estonia 6-13
After
a tough tie and tough close loss, It was fair to say that Canada felt
very good about their play and yet not so good about their position in
the standings. The game against Estonia became a must-win. A sluggish
start to the game was very penalizing, and the goals kept piling up for
Estonia. After 2 periods of play, Canada was down 9-0.
Again
the fighting spirit kicked in and the Canadians finally started to
click. It was too little too late, and although they scored 6 goals in
the third, Estonia would score 4 more to make the final score 13-6.
With only 1 point to show for their efforts, Canada was relegated to play Japan in the 15th place game.
Game 4- Team Canada vs Team Japan 16-2
The
story of this game was the sportsmanship that Team Canada displayed.
Team Japan, playing with an injured goaltender, could not put up any
real opposition to the goal hungry Canadian team. All the Canadian
players were getting in on the scoring action, but it was the final
play of the game that proved to be the best. Canadian goaltender and
team leader Mike Hayward, had all of Team Canada sign his game jersey
and presented it to Kota Yagyu, the ailing Japanese goalie in a gesture
of goodwill and sportsmanship.
................................................
The final results for the B- Division group were:
- 1st Place Winners- Team Estonia
- 2nd Place- Team Poland
- 3rd Place- Team Germany
- 4th Place- Team Hungary
- 5th Place- Team Russia
- 6th Place- Team Austria
- 7th Place- Team Canada
- 8th Place- Team Japan
In the A-Division, the Final results were quite predictable:
- 1st Place Winners- Team Sweden
- 2nd Place- Team Finland
- 3rd Place- Team Switzerland
- 4th Place- Team Czech
- 5th Place- Team Latvia
- 6th Place- Team Norway
- 7th Place- Team Slovakia
- 8th Place- Team Denmark
................................................
Overall,
the experience for Team Canada was awesome. It was an incredible
learning experience in this emerging sport that will sweep across
Canada like wildfire, with a little push from the Canadian school
system and a continued push from Hockey Canada Skills Academies.
Congratulations to the Canadian Men's U19 National Floorball Team and Staff!
TeamCanadaFloorball.com
Greg Beaudin
Germany scored the first goal in the first shift of the game. Francesco Witte got a beautiful pass from Ramon Ibold behind the net and put Germany on the lead after only 44 seconds. Germany controlled the start of the game and soon Christian Faber made it 2-0 for Team Germany. But after that Canada seemed to wake up and got their game going. At 16.01 Joel Inouye scored Canada´s first goal and made it 1-2. That was also the score at the first intermission.
