WSJ on Nordic 2nd Place Finish in S70 WC

[Cornholio 182]

The final few seconds ticked off the game clock and it was all over. One team erupted in celebration while the other team was left devastated. The scoreboard read - 

 

World 2, Nordic 1

 

Team Nordic Defenseman Wolf Stansson, Jr. was among those hit the hardest by the loss. 

 

"We played for Team Scandinavia in the S68 World Cup -- we got eliminated in the quarterfinals. Against Team World no less. Our team was really young, sort of up-and-coming if you know what I mean. But we knew that our future was bright since we were practically returning everybody… and we'd be serious competitors at the S70 World Cup. This was what our team management identified in our closing meetings."

 

Team Nordic finished the 10-game round robin with a second-place finish, just one point behind Team World. If all went right, Nordic would be getting their revenge against Team World in the Finals. Both World & Nordic Teams squeaked out with 1-0 victories in the semifinals against Western Europe and Mercenaries respectively. This revenge tour would have the perfect storybook ending if Nordic could get over the final hump. 

 

"World got out to a nice 2-0 lead in the first period. One on a bad penalty, then the second one was just a good one. We didn't give up, and we battled back to cut the deficit in half. But man, that World goaltender [Michael Johnson] was on fire. We sent a lot of shots his ways and he just saved all of them. Deflected a couple, and we just couldn't find the back of the net. I'm kinda bummed as we were dedicating this WC run to Frederik Elmebeck and we couldn't get it done. We're losing some guys, so I don't know if we'll be back in this position for the next World Cup."