7,267 Days Later

Good Afternoon! Storhamar was good in the semi-final against us. They played a tight defensive game and were very disciplined. We played the same way and were able to sweep the final two games. We won game 3, 2-0 in their rink and edged them out 3-1 in game 4. The Headlines in the paper the next day was ''The 7,267 Day Wait is Over'' The last time Sparta played in the final was 1989. After the game, while the music was on, but not loud, I looked around the locker room. Guys were talking as we iced our bumps and bruises, but not really laughing, just tired guys sitting around. There were no beers in the locker room, no hugging or celebrating. One thing was very obvious to me, our team had spent the last 8 months preparing for the next 2 weeks. Everything else didn't matter. Once we left the rink, we did a little celebrating, we had 9 days till our next game and we are still hockey players. A gathering at my apartment lasted well into Thursday. morning. I managed to make a late night international phone call to my Aunt Mary. My parents were with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bernie in Florida on a golf trip, and I felt they all needed to know what was going on in 'SarpsVegas.' (Thanks for answering Aunt Mary:)
The next week we took it easy, a lot of movies, and a lot of knocking on wood. So many sentences would start with ''If we win it'' and everyone around would knock on wood...We believe in that superstition! We watched the other semi-final on TV as Valerenga beat our cross town rival Sterjen in 6 games, setting up the final that most hockey fans in Norway wanted to see.
So today is our last day of preperation, we practice at 4 and tomorrow we play in Oslo against Valerenga in Game 1 of the finals. If you are interested, I think you can watch the telecast online at http://www.Viasatsport.no ....it costs $6-$7

I will update the blog throughout the finals..