Minneapolis Park Hockey

Once again, the Storm is sending 17 players over to Västerås (pronounced vest-or-os), Sweden on October 15, 2008. Should be a great trip with our kids getting to play hockey, bandy, hang out with Swedish kids, see Professional hockey and bandy games, and visit Stockholm for a day. Stop back daily for updates on what is going on in Sweden!

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2008 BLOG

The MPLS*PARK STORM and USA U15 Bandy Team would like to thank the following people for their great hospitality in Sweden:

Thomas Engstrom, Lars Vennerholm, Tilberga Bandy Club, Parents of Tilberga Youth Bandy Players, VIK Hockey, Hammarby Hockey, Magnus Skold, Swedish Bandy Federation, the school in Tilberga that our kids visited....and many more that we are probably forgetting!

Thank you. You provided our kids with something very special, and something they will remember forever.

Professional Action: Hammarby vs Tilberga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXE-k8DNgjk

USA U15/STORM vs Tilberga '94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBSlZjk_qSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlSkPyb-H9c

Our Bantams in Sweden will be sending us daily reports on their activities as well as a few photos.

10/16/2007 - Tomorrow our journey begins to Sweden. We are taking 31 players to Västerås, Sweden. Many of the kids cut lawns, caddied, did pancake breakfasts, and fundraised individually to help pay for this trip. Västerås is located approximately 60 miles from Stockholm, Sweden and is the sixth largest city in Sweden. Our trip includes skating, visiting a school, skating, a bowling night with Swedish kids, skating, a daytrip to Stockholm, skating, participating in the opening ceremonies for a new stadium...and some skating.

We will be playing both bandy and ice hockey. Bandy is considered ice hockey's "Father" and is attributed to the rapid rise and success of Russian ice hockey in the 60's as most of their top players were bandy superstars.

The kids don't realize it yet, but from my past experiences, they will get "Rock Star" treatment in Sweden and have a great time. I am most concerned about our teams losing their focus on the ice around "Svenska Flickors" (Swedish Girls)! Good thing we have 20 parents along acting as chaperones! Come back here each day as we will try to get pictures uploaded and let the parents know just how much fun we are having in Sweden. We are bringing lots of t-shirts and other gifts for our Swedish hosts as well as some hockey opponents that we will take on in Stockholm.

We have even brought along some three foot inflatable sharks that the kids can autograph and give as a "gift" to their clubs at the center ice face off dot prior to the drop of the puck.

This is gonna be good! Stay tuned!

10/18/2007

Well, we made it to Sweden. After a long day of travel without much sleep for any of the boys (and girls), we got into Vasteras without a problem. We dropped off our bags, had lunch, and then ran off to the ice rink for a hockey practice.

We were greeted at the rink by the Vasteras media who were there to do a news story on our boys. Carter Rodman stepped up to be our team spokesman and got a lot of camera time in the news clip.

Amazingly....after dinner, the kids went to sleep at 8:30pm. And...they went to sleep fast! We are looking forward to a couple of practices on Friday and a game in the evening. We'll report back. All of the kids are having a great time and there are no injuries or problems! Check out the PHOTOS section on the photo bar at the top of the page (or click below) for more great photos from our first day.

Another day in hockey/bandy paradise.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel is fantastic and the kids have been well fed. We set off on foot to the ice rink to have a morning practice at the ice hall. We had an hour and a half hockey practice and then went to a near-by university to have some lunch.

After lunch, it was back to the ice complex for our first bandy practice. We got to practice on the new indoor bandy stadium. It was quite the experience for the kids and they looked great in their new bandy uniforms. The stadium is preparing for opening ceremonies this weekend and it was chaos around there with people working around the clock to get things done.

In the evening we went back to the rink for a bandy game against our Swedish hosts. Unfortunately, due to warm weather, the outdoor bandy rink was not ready for  skating as it had a few gravel spots still sticking up in the rink. Not good for the skates.

We improvised! and introduced BOOT Bandy to the Swedes. The kids ran the rink on foot and were having a great time when three Swedish girls biked up just outside the rink. Instantly, the game was stopped as the boys climbed all over each other to talk to the girls who thankfully were protected from them by a twenty foot high fence!

We went out for pizza with our Swedish hosts and then called it a night. On to Stockholm on Saturday!

Injury report: None

Kids on "Double Secret Probation" : 1

Lessons in Hockey....

We boarded the bus at 8:30am and started our hour and a half roadtrip into Stockholm. The weather was gorgeous and the bus ride was easy.

In Stockholm, we stopped at the Palace in Old Town, got out and wandered around for about thirty minutes. From there, the bus took Team 2 over to the Vasa Museum. Incredible! The Vasa was a huge warship that sunk in the baltic just outside of Stockholm on its first voyage in the 1600's. Raised from the ocean floor in the 60's, it has been preserved in a beatiful museum on the waterfront.

Team 1 took off to Storra Mossen Arena for their first hockey game with the Hammarby Hockey Club (HIK). They got a great lesson in puck control, movement, fundamentals (passing and shooting), and ultimately how to play hockey on a wide Olympic rink. After three periods the score was 9-0. Fortunately, with extra time on the ice clock it was decided that there would be a shootout....USA vs Sweden. The USA was up 2-1 in the shootout but ultimately went down 6-3. The kids grouped up with the Hammarby kids for a team picture and it was off to the Vasa Museum.

Meanwhile at the Stockholm Polis station....Ok...Team 2 was good and didn't get in any trouble in Stockholm. Team 2 left the Vasa Museum and wandered over to Gamla Stan (the Old Town). The Old Town was gorgeous - cobblestone narrow streets...400 year old buildings...and candy stores.

Team 2 boarded the bus at 4:30 and took off for their game with the '93 Hammarby team. Hammarby is one of the top teams in Sweden and had a kid that was considered one of the top '93 players in the country....as our kids would say..."That kid is amazing". After the first period it was 2-2 and our kids were emboldened that they had the Swedes right where they wanted them. It was short lived. Final score was 10-2 with the shots being 59-21. What a lesson.

The day ended with Team 2 boarding the bus and picking up Team 1 at the Palace in Gamla Stan. Wow...that was hockey.

Memo to Coaches back in the states. Swedish teams arrive at the rink 1.5 hours before skating. They jog for twenty minutes, play soccer, pass a hockey ball, work on individual stickhandling with the hockey ball, and make sure they are fully stretched out. Post game, they go for a 15 minute jog to "warm down". It was a huge lesson for our kids in 'focus' and what very, very good hockey players do to prepare themselves for games.

Back to Vasteras for another day of fun at the ice rinks.

Team 1 got up early and played a 9:00am game against the Vasteras '94s. They started hot, but ran into the persistent problem we have seen over here - the Swedes start training off-ice in August and are very, very well conditioned. In talking with one parent, their player runs 6 Kilometers  six nights a week with their dog in addition to hockey. No wonder our kids started to fade midway through the second period!

The game had some great goaltending, but in the end, it was a 12-0  defeat. Good luck to the '93s on Monday night.

This is where the day got better. We went to the new ABB Bandy Stadium that seats 10,000+ spectators to take on the Tilberga Bandy Club in a USA vs. Tilberga bandy match. It was awesome. The first USA players to step on the ice were our kids, but the Tilberga kids took it to us early. In the end, the score was a 8-3 loss with Tommy Abbott scoring the first USA goal in the ABB stadium (and two goals in the game).

They ripped off their equipment and sprinted to the Rocklundahallen for the Professional Hockey game between Vasteras and Bofors IK. It was a great game to watch as Vasteras took down Bofors 8-1.

From there, a quick trip for some Kebab and pizza...and then back to the bandy stadium. The Tilberga professional team was taking on a Sweden bandy power, Hammarby. The kids got to see an incredibly fast (can't explain in typed words just how fast) game of bandy. At halftime, the Svenska Flickors (Swedish Girls) on bikes showed up outside of the stadium. The boys suddenly disappeared to the parking lot for the rest of the game to hang out and talk with the girls.

The Takeaway - At the end of the day, ALL of our players were 'converted' to bandy players. All want to see how we can schedule more games and play back in the Twin Cities. Tomorrow we are cancelling our hockey practice to play another bandy game.

What a day of pain for the kids. They woke up this morning, had a great buffet breakfast (nothing better than cheese and meats, fruits and breads) and took off to the bandy rink.

The bandy rink just opened over the weekend. The ice surface is the size of a football field and the place is huge. We are all in awe of the excitement of playing on a rink this size. At 9:00am we hit the ice for a practice with Thomas Engstrom - the Swedish National U15 Head Coach. Thomas was fantastic - running a great practice and teaching the troops about how to play bandy and move the ball.

We wandered back to town where the kids had some more of their "staple food", McDonalds. For some reason Micky D's is their "place". Might be that they meet and talk to some Swedish girls there!

After lunch, we had a USA U15 Development Bandy Intrasquad game. We balanced the teams out and the game was a fantastic end to end battle, ending with "Team Storm" taking down the USA in a 5-4 battle.

The kids love playing bandy. Its new, fun and different. The beauty of the game is that with 11 kids on the ice, almost everyone gets to play every minute of the game.

After three hours of playing earlier in the day, it got down to some serious games in the evening. TEAM 2, our "'93" team took on the Vasteras "93's". The game was a nice battle with an end result of a 5-2 loss to the Swedes.

Meanwhile at the bandy rink, TEAM 1, our "94's" took on the Tillberga bandy club in a grueling match. Parents in the crowd were in a frenzy as the USA team lept to a 2-0 lead. It was short lived as the Tilberga Club fought back and challenged our lads. At the end of the day, our troops tied the Tilberga Club 6-6.

A really succesful day for our kids and a nice way to end our competitive games for the week. Tomorrow AM, they are heading to the Tilberga School to spend half the day hanging out with kids at that school and seeing how Swedish schools are different from our schools. We'll play bandy in the afternoon and then have a great going away Pizza Party/Bowling Party with our new Swedish friends.

I know parents have called to see how things are going. All kids are in great shape - no major or minor injuries. Lots of great fun.

We got the kids out of bed early (7:30am) and down to breakfast. Some were moving quickly, some weren't.

Today was a day where the kids would get to go to the Tillberga Middle School and attend classes with their Swedish friends. The kids took public transportation the ten miles or so out to Tillberga.

For many of the kids, this was their most interesting day. Many returned from the school stating they wanted to learn "Swedish" so that they could attend school and spend more time in Sweden. School lunch was interesting....salmon lasagna. Something that would be considered quite nice to serve students here in the US. Most kids agreed it was better than what they would get at school lunch here, but it was still a school lunch (and just being school lunch implies it is bad!). Thanks to several parents for escorting the kids there and earning their "combat pay".

Straight from the school the kids jumped on a bus and got themselves back to the Bandy Stadium at Rocklunda. We would have our final intersquad match ---- USA vs USA. After tieing in the first match days earlier the kids were primed to make sure a USA team was victorious while in Sweden. After a grueling hour match, the score ended up 6-5 and we had a winner.

Back at the lockerroom, the kids began lobbying to stay another week. They were just getting going on having fun and were really having a great time playing hockey, bandy, and hanging out with Swedish kids.

In the evening we left for Strikes, a bowling alley located just blocks from our hotel. Many of the Swedish bandy players that they had hung out with at school were there and the kids hung out and bowled together. The evening ended with each parent receiving the "orders" to take the kids assigned to them for dinner and then return and pack at the hotel.

For me, this was a chance to sneak out with our Swedish "chaperone" Magnus and have a high-end dinner (rack of lamb with excellent complements including aquavit, wine courses, and a Swedish dessert licquor). A great way for me to wind down after a week of making sure kids didn't get in trouble or get hurt in Vasteras.

In concluding our trip, we are looking at returning to Vasteras in 2008. It was just too perfect. The bandy rink and hockey rinks right next to each other, the hotel centrally located in the Vasteras downtown, wonderful Swedish hospitality. The kids that were along would agree....we need to come back to Vasteras!