Gold Medal Women's Hockey: Orford v. Strathcona

Another brilliant blue sky in Magog today - crisp, cold morning -20 degrees celsius - perfect for an outdoor hockey game. We met at 10am at the outdoor skating area along the shore of Lake Memphrémagog. They have a beautiful 2.5km ice path along the lake that had coach Berend drooling - he brought out his vintage speed skates and raced along the path. When all the kids showed up the gold medal men's final took place on the small hockey rink by the lake. The guys played 8 aside no slapshot hockey and the Strathcona Nordics drafted a couple of Orford ringers to help us out. It started out friendly and polite before our competitive nature came out. Alex Brown, Matthew Salmon and Alexandre Boutin, our Orford ringer, came through with some clutch plays to give Strathcona a commanding lead. Then the Morin twins and Zach from team Orford stepped it up a notch with ringers Connor and Tallon to even it up. The game was getting heated in overtime before the ladies stepped in and took over the ice for the women's gold medal game -- so the men's final ended in a tie. Then the REAL hockey began with the women's final. I won't spoil the drama..you'll have to watch the video.....I'll post the video tomorrow....

After lunch we headed back to Mt Orford for a technical classic ski session with coach Gilles. It warmed up considerably to -12 and it was nice to put something other than klister on our classic skis. Tim and Berend took the opportunity to put to bed the notion that BC skiers are soft, lily-livered people who like skiing in +10 and bucketing rain - we stripped down to our shorts and did a little tour around the training area. They no longer think BC people are soft but now they definitely know we're crazy.