Bowey Blogs: Madison Bowey shares his experiences from the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Russia

Sunday, April 21: 

After arriving on the 17th, I’ve had a lot of time to meet and bond with the team. I’m one of eight returning players so I’ve had a chance to play with most of them in the Ivan Hlinka tournament that took place this summer. It already feels like this team has been playing together for over a year that’s how close we are. Everyone on the team is willing to buy in and play whatever role it takes to win the gold medal, which is very important in a short event like this. I’ve noticed that we’re a very supportive team and everyone will have each other’s backs when the times are rough, so when it comes down to the big games I know everyone will be ready to go.

We’ve played two games so far against Slovakia and Germany. In the Slovakia game, we got off to a quick start with a goal from Nick Baptiste, the Slovaks answered quickly tying the game, and a few shifts after we got a goal from Connor McDavid with a tremendous individual effort. We outplayed them for the next two periods when finally in the third we were able to get some insurance with goals from Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett. This was my first game with the team and it was very easy to step in with all the great players we have. Game 2 was against Germany; we got off to a quick start with two goals in the first period but had a very slow second which saw both teams scoring. We ended up holding on to our 3-1 lead with an unreal effort by our goalie Philippe Desrosiers, who made some huge saves. Starting a competitive tournament like this 2-0 is huge but we know that now it just gets tougher from here.

On our down time we all get together in a lounge room that we have where we play NHL13. We usually play a big 2-on-2 tournament, which can get very competitive but is a lot of fun. The little things like this are what bring us all closer as a family and will help us bring back the gold to Canada. We know from here on out that every game matters and that we can’t afford to take a night off, so we’re all getting prepared to finish of this round robin on a strong note and take that momentum into the medal rounds.

Tonight will be a very cool because we have a chance to tour around Sochi, Russia for a few hours before having a team dinner with Bob Nicholson, who is a Hockey Canada icon. It should be a really special day for us as a team and we’re all really looking forward to it.