AN INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Bell Capital Cup kicks into high gear
While people from around the world will be heading to PyeongChang early next year for the Winter Olympics, much smaller numbers have made their way to Ottawa for some games of their own over the next few days.
Karhu-Kissat from Finland and Chunichi from Japan are two of the international teams in town for the Bell Capital Cup, and both teams had games Thursday at the Minto Arena in the major peewee A division to open the 19th edition of the tournament.
Most of these 12-year-olds had never been outside the borders of their home countries, let alone played hockey in Canada’s capital. There was the Canadian competition to consider and also the bonechilling Canadian weather — the forecast low for Thursday night was -27 C — that will remain until well after the tournament wraps up on Sunday.
“Not this cold,” said Finnish coach Tuomas Karppanen, flanked by defencemen Oskari Vuorisalo and Roope Mankinen for a postgame interview, when asked if they were used to the cold. “In Finland, it’s something like minus-5 at the moment, so it’s not this cold.”
The team spent a couple of days in Montreal before coming to Ottawa and will spend a few days in Toronto before heading back home next week. Their opening game of the tournament was a tough 3-2 loss to the Leitrim Hawks, who got two goals from Mathis Fortin and one from Mark Osborne.
For the Hawks players, it was as exciting to be playing a team from Finland as it was for the visitors to be playing so far away from home.
“It was a great experience because it’s not every day you get to play a team from far away, so I really liked it,” Hawks defenceman Tristan Gordon said. “All our team really liked playing against them.”
Hawks goaltender Marco Peloso agreed and thought it was an awesome opportunity.
“It was fun and very cool to be playing against them,” he said, adding it would be nice to get a trip to Finland for a rematch. “They were really fast and they could deke a lot. It was really intense, and at the same time I treated it like a friendly game and it was fun.”
Karhu-Kissat got goals from Siltanen Aleksi and Aarvala Taavi, who scored on a nice deke, as Peloso put it, during a penalty shot with no time left on the clock.
That goal made the score 3-2, and as Taavi skated past the Leitrim bench he received fist pumps and pats on the head from most of the Hawks players.
“It’s my first time out of Europe, and these guys’, too,” said Karppanen.
“The people in general are quite nice here if you compare to Finland. In Finland there is so much rivalry.” Mankinen agreed. “It was kind of a friendly game. It was good,” he said.
Shortly after that game ended, across the hall on the other ice surface, the Osgoode Rideau Romans were hanging on for a 4-3 win over the Chunichi Ice Hockey Club, a team made up of members from three other Japanese teams for this event.
Shaun Clost scored twice for the Romans while Will Hunter and Cole Haughton had a goal each.
Ryo Okada had two goals for Chunichi. Eito Tanahashi scored to make it 4-3 with a little more than two minutes to play.
“It’s very different here than at home and the rules are different,” Tanahashi said through translator Miwa Armstrong, saying bodychecking is allowed in peewee levels in Japan. “The Canadian players are all strong, too, and better than Japanese players.”
Koichiro Matsudaira had an assist against the Romans but has had as much fun off the ice, telling Armstrong that he “really likes the Canadian food and has done a lot of shopping, especially at Hockey Life.”
He added that his favourite food was a hamburger from Dunn’s. It was then suggested he try Harvey’s.
Action continues today throughout the region, with all levels competing.