Day 4 The First Games

So it all began with the wake-up call that we were supposed to get. It turns out that the front desk thought that they could call us even though there were no phones in the rooms. But thanks to Merv we got up. Then off to the rink it was for a little good old hockey.

Once at the rink the younger kids started the game off with a few additions from the older team. The first game started off with a 1-0 period by the Czech. But they weren’t done there with three more quick ones at the beginning of the second. The Americans would have none of that nonsense though. After going short handed, Jack Sunderland got a couple good feeds from Daniel Westerberg, and Michael Jones and finished the job with two goals. Then the Czechs would have no part of that and came back to get two goals. But as the dinosaur he is Connor wanted a couple of goals and decided to fire some lasers past the Czech goalie. So after a hard fought game the Americans fell 6-4.

Unfortunately the major game was not as pretty. Daniel Westerberg had himself a nice garbage goal off a rebound from Sam Dudick. But after that it was all the Czech Republic. Tough guy 26 thought it would be a good idea to go after the dinosaur. It wasn’t… After this part in the game it turned into who was the tougher team, which we proved we were. All in all the Czech proved superior winning 9-1 but it was a valiant effort from the small town boys of Vail and Summit. With a few team pictures with each other it was off to lunch.

At lunch Bergen, Greg, Jack, and Curtis “Cujo,” had a delightful feast with a Czech boy named Mike Jachym. He was probably the nicest kid on their team and could speak some broken English. But that was more than the other tables could say with other kids speaking about as much English as we do Czech (answer = none.) A good lunch later it was on the bus to Ceske Budejovice (or something like that.) Once in this place we got off the bus checked into the rooms and walked the street. The parents are having a great time(and that’s a big understatement) and all in all the women are still beautiful.

By Jack Sunderland, with help from Bergen Tjossem and Mike Jones