More Ice Hockey

A couple of weeks ago I went to see some more ice hockey. This time it was two games on the final day of the Karjala Tournament. If you're wondering why I chose to sit through two ice hockey games in a row, it's because the tickets were sold together as a package and I'm always one to get my money's worth.

No alcoholics allowed apparently

The tournament is played between four of the leading ice hockey nations - Russia, Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden. My tickets were for Russia v Czech Rep. and the mother of all battles...Finland v Sweden. There is a massive rivalry between Finland and Sweden and I never thought I would get to see them playing each other live so I was quite excited.

The English...supporting Finland

The first game, Russia v Czech Rep. was very exciting and closely fought right up until the end. The game finishes 2-2 and thus went to penalties, which I've never seen before in ice hockey so it was quite interesting. Russia ended up winning, although we were cheering on the Czechs as this now meant that Russia had won the tournament and Finland would have no chance.

The Finns and Swedes line up against each other

The Finland v Sweden game was still very exciting. The stadium was full of Finnish fans, I could only see a handful of Swedes surrounded by a sea of blue and white. It was again closely fought but the Swedes started to gain the upper hand by the end and won 1-0.

The final score

It was great fun again to see some ice hockey and I'm becoming quite a fan now. It's a shame that when I leave Finland I won't be able to see anything like it, even TV coverage of the sport is very limited at home. Still, it was nice to see the national team of Finland playing in Helsinki against the hated-Swedes and I hope they win sometime in future!