Brad Emmerson Blog - A Test Run in Vancouver In our preparation for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Canada invited three teams to come in to do a test run of the facilities that will be used in Vancouver.
In our preparation for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Canada invited three teams to come in to do a test run of the facilities that will be used in Vancouver. This tournament was going to be a huge step in helping to grow our sport because something was going to happen that had never been done before; the gold medal game was to be televised live on TSN all across Canada. So our goal was simple, to come into Vancouver and be a part of history.
When we first arrived in Vancouver we had the night off before our first practice early the next morning. After getting to the rink we all walked around and checked out what the facilities had to offer. And, the one thing that really stood out to us all were the benches. The benches were ice level and inside them was all ice, so that not only could we skate in and out without having to worry about going up a small ramp or skating on synthetic plastic ice we could easily move around inside with little effort. With all of the excitement surrounding the tournament all we had to do was focus on our first game against Japan.
Japan is a team that over the years we have played really well, so all we had to do was go out and play a solid game and we would come out with a big win. Or, at least that's what we thought. Japan came out and shocked us with a 3-1 upset win. And our second game wasn't going to be any easier as we had to play against our archrival Canada the very next day. So that night we all just went back to our hotel rooms and tried to take our minds off the game, I decided to go to bed early so I could get some extra sleep. And on my way to my room a few of the guys were giving me a hard time for going to bed at 9:30 saying that I was an old man and could use a few more hours of beauty sleep. Only being 23, I had to laugh, but then again the two "kids" that were joking around with me were Adam Page and Josh Pauls both of whom weren't even born until the 1990's.
The next day we played against Canada, this was a hard hitting affair with little scoring. In the first period we came out shaky and fell behind 2-0. But we bounced back in the second period and outshot them 8-2. The lead was cut in half when Mike Hallman took a shot and Chris Manns redirected the puck into the net making it a one goal game. In the third period things really heated up, being down by a goal and having already pulled our goalie the puck was dumped in on Canada's goalie Paul Rosen who held the puck in an attempt to kill
