Team Canada Finishes Strong at the World Floorball Championships

Photos

Finnish School KIds Cheer for Canada!

see larger image

uploaded by BC Floorball Federation

• 

  uploaded by BC Floorball Federation | add comment

• 

  uploaded by BC Floorball Federation | add comment

• 

  uploaded by BC Floorball Federation | add comment

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:

• Team Canada vs M-Team 2-9
  
• Team Canada vs Kerava Bandy 8-9

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.

For more information on Floorball, visit FloorballCanada.ca

Congratulations to the Canadian Men's U19 National Floorball Team and Staff!

TeamCanadaFloorball.com

Greg Beaudin