U20-tournament in Grand forks 10-14 Aug 2004

USA (2 teams), Finland and Sweden play a tournament in Grand Forks 10. - 14 August 2004.

Prices and schedules http://dataflix2.surtos.com/scripts/default.asp

Finland's team

 

Lauri Tukonen isn't on the roster

 

Nor is Korpikoski.

But Tuukka Rask is. I'd like to get a look at him.

 

Yeah me too. Teemu Laakso is there too.

 

When USA Hockey announced the initial US roster back in June, they also announced their intentions to videocast the game live on their website.

Link

Hopefully these plans haven't fallen through. If they're going to do this, they'll probably make further announcements when they put up the rosters for the two US teams.

 

Along with that thought...here is some good news regarding the games:

World Juniors get help in prime time

REA/USA Hockey tap marketing giant to promote tourney

David Dodds, Herald Staff Writer




It was a question of televising the upcoming 2005 World Junior hockey championships in the United States on local cable access or shooting for something bigger, according to officials with host Ralph Engelstad Arena.


Chris Semrau, arena director of events, said plans had been to show tournament games on Grand Forks cable Channel 23, and possibly statewide on the Fighting Sioux Network at best. But with the recent hiring of a national sports marketing heavyweight, those intentions have fallen to Plan B.


REA management, jointly with USA Hockey, announced Wednesday that they've agreed to terms with Connecticut-based Octagon, one of the world's leading sports and event marketing companies.


The deal opens the possibility of more television exposure for the tournament locally, regionally and nationally. Specific terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.


Octagon routinely works out deals for clients with media giants such as NBC and ESPN and has negotiated naming rights for both the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans stadiums.


The company employs more than 1,500 people in 70 offices worldwide and manages the careers of a number of world-class athletes, such as Anna Kournikova, Mia Hamm, Tom Glavine, John Elway and David Robinson.


Bigger deal


It's the first time any United States-based World Junior host has brought in such high-caliber help to market the tournament. Tournaments held in hockey hotbeds Canada and Europe in past years have tapped marketing agents to help with those events.


Semrau said Octagon, with its experience and contacts, should make the World Juniors a bigger deal in the United States, but it still won't compare to the buzz and exposure it'll get in Canada.


Engelstad Arena currently is hashing out a deal with TSN, commonly called the Canadian ESPN, to televise the tournament. Last year's World Junior tourney was one of the highest rated television events in Canada.


"This will not put us on that level, just because it's not our culture," Semrau said, "but it will get us a bit closer."


Carl Levi, an arena marketing specialist, isn't counting anything out when it comes to the kind of television deal Octagon might secure for the tournament.


"There's all sorts of options," Levi said. "If we get the right person to go along with us, then our possibilities really are endless. (Octagon) brings a lot of firepower and a lot of weight."




Officials impressed


In addition to procuring the TV deal, Octagon also will take care of sponsorship sales for the World Junior tournament, which is set for late December and early January in Grand Forks and Thief River Falls.


Levi said it's also possible that Octagon could bring in some of the athletes and superstars it manages to take part in some of the off-ice tournament events, such as the "Fanfest" slated for the Alerus Center.


At first, Octagon turned down local organizers' requests to get involved in the Grand Forks tournament. But persistence paid off, and finally, Patrick Shannon, an Octagon senior vice president and father of a Boston College hockey player who played on the 2003 Team USA World Junior team, persuaded other company brass to take on the job.


"After watching my son play for the United States in the tournament in Halifax (Nova Scotia) in 2003," Shannon said, "I saw firsthand the impact this event can have on a community that celebrates the game of hockey."


Octagon officials recently paid a visit to the Englestad arenas in Grand Forks and Thief River Falls and were impressed by the combined $116 million facilities.

source

not a sure thing...but it looks like there's reason to hope....as opposed to the pitifully sad non-existent coverage last year...until AFTER they won the Gold Medal....These guys deserve better.

 

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing him play again. I hope he gets some ice time. Might be hard though, since he is 2 years younger than most players there and with that leg injury still not fully healed...

We'll see, I guess.


I already paid for the web casts that they offer... I hope they're any good.

 

This is really nice. Let's hope Sweden wins...

 

Whoops, I thought that was a link to tickets. I was hoping the webcasts would be free but the price isn't that bad.

 

I'm interested to see how Tuomas Santavuori does, if anyone can keep their eye out for him.

 

Miika Lahti is in. The offense is shambles though, basically the first and third lines are missing altogether. At least the best 'tenders and blueliners are there, they couldn't make do without them.

 

Why is the offence in shambles?

 

Lauri Korporski sp?? is on the roster.

 

With the final WJC roster, I'd go with

(Korpikoski) - Nokelainen - (Tukonen)
Nurmi - Piispanen - (Marjamäki)
(Salonen) - (Tenkanen) - (Seitsonen)

for the top three lines. Now the rest of the guys just scramble to fill those six spots, and frankly, I have little faith in them to produce.

 

Not bad at all. I just ordered it tonight. Hopefully they're decent quality.

 

Sweden won the first game vs. Team USA blue, 3-0. The first two goals came against Montoya in the first period, who was a bit shakey. Chris Holt came in the 2nd and didn't allow a goal the rest of the way. The last goal was an empty netter.

USA had plenty of chances and plenty of power plays, but just couldn't bury the puck. Phil Kessel and Blake Wheeler in particular had a few golden chances each. Heino-Lindberg was pretty good all game long.

End of the 1st of the 2nd game tonight vs. Finland. Finland leads Team USA white 2-0. Schneider in net for the US. Looks to be the weaker of the two US teams so far.

No official rosters for the two USA teams, but from what I could tell:

Blue:
Montoya
Holt
Hagemo
Hunwick
Johnson
Macias
Nickerson
Suter
Zarb
Auffrey
Dowell
Earl
T.Fritsche
Hensick
Kessel
O'Sullivan
Pineault
Stafford
Vigilante
Wheeler

White:
Brown (G)
Schneider
Borer
Brennan
Lashoff
Likens
Lewis
Sharrow
Thelen
Bourque
Brown (F)
Callahan
Davis
Dubinsky
D.Fritsche
Haskins
Hennessy
Lerg
Porter
Schremp

Haven't seen Stastny or Weller yet, so I don't know which teams they're on. Team USA blue was using Nickerson upfront in the first game, so I'd imagine they scratched one of Stastny/Weller for that.

 

Team USA blue was using Nickerson upfront in the first game, so I'd imagine they scratched one of Stastny/Weller for that.[/QUOTE]


could it be that the stars have a new power forward.

How did Nickerson look, did he play D at all???

thanks for the update

 

Any info on the pairings and lines? And a report on Zarb would be nice.

 

To clarify, there was a problem with the webcast so I only got to see parts of the 2nd and 3rd periods of the first game. Second one ended 3-1 for Finland, Fritsche with the only goal for the US. Piispanen, Nokelainen, and Keranen had the goals for Finland, I believe.

I didn't see him on D at all, I think they had him on RW upfront. He looked decent along the boards, but he only had a few shifts that I saw.

I didn't get to see enough to get a read on the pairings/lines. Zarb from what I could tell, had a few nice first passes out of the zone, but he wasn't on the ice as much as Suter/Johnson/Hunwick.

I spent much of the game trying to figure out who was who. There were no names on the jerseys and the play-by-play guy really didn't know who was on the ice half the time when he did say a players name (which was rare). Hell, it took me forever to find out who he was talking about when he said Macias' name. He pronounced it "ma-KEE-ass," which is a complete gringoization of the name. I haven't seen enough of all of these players to quickly recognize them simply by their skating style alone.

The only players that really stood out for the U.S. in both games were Johnson and Macias on defense, both had some great rushes and showed smooth skating ability/poise with the puck. Kessel, Fritsche, and Wheeler were the only standouts upfront. All three showed great speed and were in the mix a lot, creating chances. Schremp and Davis also had some decent chances in the 2nd game. Schremp in particular walked in on Rask alone and shot it high.

The webcast trouble should be cleared up for the upcoming four games, so I'll keep a closer eye on Zarb/Nickerson and hopefully be able to give a more indepth report on the teams with line combos and D pairings.

 

Thanks.

 

I couldn't get the webcasts to work at all. Anybody know what this means...

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01b0'

File name or class name not found during Automation operation

/common/i_ScriptHeader.asp, line 44

I tried the preview feature before ordering and it worked fine for me so I don't really understand why it's not working.

 

I would email them at webcast@theralph.com. I know they had a lot of problems with the webcasts, so they should be able to help.

Question, are you running Windows 95/98/ME? If so, I think you need Windows Management Instrumentation, which should fix that error.

 

No, I'm on XP. I sent off an e-mail to the dataflix.com tech support so hopefully they'll get back to me before the games tomorrow.

Since you saw some of the games, were the US teams outplayed or could they just not burry their chances?

 

I would try webcast@theralph.com, who got back to me fairly quickly. Dataflix never got back to me with my problems.

I didn't see any of the 1st period of the Sweden game, but the rest of the game, they had lots of power plays and spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, but they just couldn't finish their chances. I'd say Wheeler and Kessel had 2 very good scoring chances each, at least. They also had a flurry in the 3rd period which I thought they'd score on, but they missed the net about 5 times from in close in about a span of a minute. Sweden played a very good defensive game overall though, and there were times team USA just couldn't get in the zone.

As for the Finland game, Rask was a big factor. The US had just as many shots (if not more) than Finland, but they just couldn't bury the puck. It was a pretty evenly played game though.

It seems the US teams really settled down once Holt/Brown came in to replace Montoya/Schneider, who were both a little shaky.

 

thanks