Last night: USA vs Canada

Paste of my NHL Connect blog from last night, as the USA-Canada match at the World Juniors played out:

What better way to spend New Year’s Eve? I have been looking forward to this game all day, even as I tried and failed to find the Sweden-Russia matchup on TV or online. I’d much rather be watching this than freezing my butt off in Times Square.
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Wow, the crowd is going insane. I haven’t seen so many people wesring red since I was in Ottawa for Canada Day, 2005. And this is just a preliminary round game. How great is the final going to be if (when) Canada gets there?
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Enjoy the game, everyone! And a Happy New Year!
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Update: Holy cow, USA up 3-0. Crowd. Not. Happy.
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Taveras scores twice in a minute – 3-2. OH MAN. This is awesome. Just awesome. And it’s still the first period.
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Eberle chips one in on the power play. 3-3 with 1:40 to go in the first. Unbelievable. And there’s another fight. Tense, brilliant, brutal. This is everything hockey should be, and a fair few things it shouldn’t be, too.
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37 seconds into the second period, 4-3 Canada. Seriously, what is going on here? Controversy – a high stick on the assist? No, definitely below the crossbar. Great replay there.
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Just as I thought the USA had lost all momentum, it’s 4-4 after an ugly defensive mixup by the Canadian penalty killing unit. I’m running out of adjectives here. Did I say “crazy” yet? Pretty soon I’ll have run out of useful words and be reduced to things like “lavender” and “extraneous”.
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Make that 5-4 Canada. It’s a lot like the second game of the 1979 Challenge Cup. Does anyone else remember that? Wow, amazing saves at each end. Surprised these two goalies are still in the game, but they are showing me why.
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Nerves jangling all around. Canada can’t put it away, the USA can’t equalize. Missed chances all over. 1:44 left…
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Less than a minute…
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Taveras walks one into the empty net for his hat-trick, 6-4 Canada, and finally they drive that last nail into the US coffin. Crowd goes totally nuts. That’s all she wrote.
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But wait. One last act. BUFFALO’S OWN TYLER ENNIS ices it with Canada’s seventh goal. Good night everyone, and Happy New Year!