“Qiánjìn! Qiánjìn! Jìn!” The resounding notes of the Chinese national anthem, March of the Volunteers, set the stage for the exhibition match between the Varsity Blues women’s hockey team, and Team China’s women’s Olympic team. The game drew an impressive crowd in three seemingly distinctive clusters: the loyal Varsity Blues regulars, fans who came to support their home Olympic team, and ambivalent fans, myself included, struggling between cheering for their school and cheering for their roots.
The teams previously met on September 30, 2009. At the time, Team China was on a nine-week tour against the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association teams from the end of August to the beginning of November. In that match, Team China erased a 3-1 deficit in the final frame to win the game 4-3. Team China concluded the tour with a record of 15-5-1.
The game literally went off to a stumbling start, as seven of the 10 skaters fell to the ice in the first shift. The Team China captain, Wang Linuo, lost her footing in the offensive zone. Many players also fell in something of a domino effect. Both teams featured some fabulous skaters, who zoomed up the ice, providing a lot of excitement and drawing rounds of cheers from the crowd. Both teams were unable to put the puck in the nets for nearly the entire opening frame, until Team China’s Sun Rui scored on a great individual effort. After chipping the puck by a pinching Blue defence, she deked the final defender between the legs, reminiscent of NHL player Rick Nash, and backhanded the puck over Blues netminder Kendyl Valenta.
Emotions picked up in the second period. Pushing and shoving and checking into the boards, rarities in women’s hockey, were on display. These actions were much to the delight of the fans who cheered on their teams with “Go Blues Go!” or “Zhongguo Jiayou!” (“Go Team China”). The home team replied early in the second. Toronto player Amanda Fawns powered her way to the front of the net. After her initial shot was stopped, teammate Allie White pounced on the rebound, tipping it in to tie the game.
But the Blues had no answers for Team China’s speed. Five minutes later, Number 10 Zhang Ben was sent in alone on a breakaway, where she deked to her backhand and slid in the puck between the legs of the goalie. Just one minute later, Team China managed a two-on-one break. Wang Linuo sent a beautiful pass across to Sun Rui while falling, and her teammate deposited the puck in the top corner blocker side.
“We looked good,” said Team China’s conditioning coach Vlad Kuznetsov, after the game. Kuznetsov has been with the team since its inception. The coach added, “The girls understand that they have only a few games to prepare before the big one. They are treating this [game] as the real thing.”
Team China scored two more goals in the period, a tip-in of a point shot and another backhand deke over the goalie’s pads, increasing the score to 5-1. Team China’s netminder, Jia Dandan, was especially solid in the second period. She flashed the leather on a Blues wrist shot and made a martial-arts-like save when she punched the puck away after losing her stick.
“Thank you, you are very kind,” Jia said shyly in Mandarin in response to the compliment on her performance at the end of the game. “The Blues are a very good team and we have faced many good teams on the trip,” Jia added, referencing the previous nine-week swing as well as the current six-game pre-Olympic tour. When asked about her goal in Vancouver, she replied that, “We will try to win as many games as possible.”
The Varsity Blues did come to play, and they provided a spectacular late third period. Two of the top players on the team, Karolina Urban and Lindsay Hill, played give and go, passing the puck back and forth, ending with Urban’s wrist shot, that went into the top shelf of the net.
China completed the scoring with two late goals in the third, finishing with a 7-2 victory. A five-round exhibition shootout ensued with all of the fans on their feet. In the fifth round of the shootout, Team China’s Zheng Mengying scored the only goal, beating Valenta stick side.
Team China looks to wrap up the six-game trip, and then march on to the Olympics on a strong note.
