University of Minnesota Athletics
Mike Hoeffel Diary From World Junior Tournament
1/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Sophomore Mike Hoeffel is one of three current Gophers playing with the U.S. squad in the under-20 World Junior championship in Ottawa, Canada and is providing a diary of his experiences.
Hoeffel will check in with updates throughout the tournament, which officially began Dec. 26. The team began practice for the tournament on Dec. 15 in Lake Placid, N.Y. Gophers' sophomore Cade Fairchild and freshman Jordan Schroeder are also participating in the event for the second straight year as Minnesota is the only collegiate team with three players in the tournament. Hoeffel is making his first appearance with the World Juniors team. Former Gopher Jim O'Brien is also a member of the squad.
The U.S. finished 3-1 in pool play and lost to Slovakia 5-3 in the quarterfinals. Team USA plays the Czech Republic in the fifth place game on Sun., Jan. 4.
Mike Hoeffel Diary from World Junior Championships
Sunday, January 4
Here is another update from Ottawa. It's Sunday and we are playing in the fifth place game tonight. Two nights ago the Slovaks pulled the biggest upset of the tournament and beat us 5-3 in our quarterfinal matchup. Their goalie put on one of the more spectacular performances I've ever seen, comparable to the way Alex Kangas played last year in our playoff run. We dominated the whole game, only allowing them 13 shots on goal. And last night when they played the Swedes in the semis, they led 2-1 going into the third period, until the Swedes eventually pulled it out 5-3 with an empty net. But I guess that's the way it goes in sports sometimes, and now we are preparing to face the Czechs tonight who will be another good competitive team.
Tonight will be our last night in Ottawa for we will all fly home tomorrow morning, concluding our tenure here at the World Junior Championships. It has been an unbelievable experience, one that I'll always remember and learn from. I speak on behalf of both Jordan and Cade that we are all excited to come back and see the boys and start the second half of our season against North Dakota next weekend. See everyone soon, hope you enjoyed the diary.
Thursday, January 1
Here is another update from Ottawa. Since the tournament has started, our team has gone 3-1 in our pool play games, defeating Germany 8-2, Czech Republic 4-3, and Kazakhstan 12-0. All of our lines have contributed really well both offensively and defensively and we are building more and more confidence as a team everyday.
Last night we played Canada in the most exciting, loud, emotionally filled environment that I've ever been apart of as a player. 21,000 screaming Canadian fans filled the Scotia Bank Center, wanting nothing more than their team to run us out of the building. It was the most anticipated match up of pool play and it sure lived up to the hype. It was high scoring from both sides, and featured lots of controversial calls. One including a Canadian player being let out of the penalty box eight seconds before the penalty expired and then moments later leading to a Canadian goal. It ended up being a 7-4 final, but the score was not indicitivie of how the game was played because they got two empty-netters. We took the positives from that game tho and are now focused on the medal round that starts on Friday. Our first opponent will be Slovakia, which edged out the Finn's for third place in their bracket yesterday. That game will take place Friday at 3:30 pm (eastern). I will check back in again after that game.
Good luck against Brown Boys!
Thursday, December 25
Here is an update from Ottawa. We arrived here the 24th after beating Russia 5-1 in our last exhibition game on Tuesday night. Our team played another solid game, limiting the Russians to getting their dangerous attack going all night. We even held them to zero shots through the first period. Aaron Palushaj had the hat trick for us, and vanReimsdyk and Wilson had the other two tallies.
On Christmas Eve day, we had our first day off of skating since we arrived in Lake Placid, and we traveled 2 hours from Kingston to Ottawa, our final destination. Last night we had a little Christmas party among team members, and everybody brought a gift to exchange. Then today, we had our first practice at Scotia Bank Centre where the Ottawa Senators play. It's an unbelievable rink, somewhat similar to the Xcel Energy Center, and our team was granted the visting locker room, so its really neat setup we have.
Other than that, our "O.C" group has grown from five members to about nine guys, so on our time off we usually have a big group of guys gathering in to a room to watch what's going to happen on the newest O.C. episode. The tournament starts tomorrow, so I'll
write back in a couple days once we complete a few games. Happy Holidays!!
Sunday, December 21
Here is an update from Kingston, Ontario. We arrived here last night, beginning the second phase of our trip with two exhibition games versus Latvia and
Russia. We had a morning skate then played Latvia Sunday night at the K-Rock Centre where the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL (Ontario Hockey League)
play their games. It's a new arena so it's a really nice place to play and it just about sold out, so it was exciting. We ended up beating them 13-2.
Our top line of Wilson, van Riemsdyk, and Schroeder were absolutely dominant the whole night and were a threat to score every shift. It was
also nice because we got scoring from all four lines so hopefully that depth will help us in the tournament games in Ottawa.
Tomorrow (Monday) we have the day off of games, so we will practice in the morning then have individual meetings and time to relax after. We play the Russians on Tuesday night, so I will write again after that game.
Thursday, December 18
All members of the team arrived in Albany, N.Y. on Monday night and we had a two-hour bus ride to the Olympic Training Center where we will stay until Saturday afternoon. The last couple days we have had a busy schedule of early 8 a.m. wake-ups and two practices per day.
During our off time, Schroeder, (Danny) Kristo, (Ryan) McDonagh, O'Brien, and myself have been glued to the TV watching the seasons of The O.C. to pass the time. Today we get to relax a bit more, only having one practice and later taking the bus downtown to have a team meal and movie after.
So far, the team chemistry seems to be great--everybody laughing and joking around a lot so its been a lot of fun so far. Ill update you again when we get to Kingston, Ontario on Saturday where we will play a couple exhibition games before heading up to Ottawa.
