Russians win first exhibition game 2-0 ( from CMHL website )

You take away the clutching and grabbing, and you replace it with speed, shooting and passing.  Add pride to the mix and superb goaltending on both sides and you get a brand new product, called hockey.  In the opinion of this writer, it was the best game of hockey I’ve seen in a long time.

Was it a competition between whose fans could cheer on their team the loudest or was it an exhibition game between two very proud communities?  For those partisan fans who showed up just to watch good old’ hockey, it was both.

Over one hundred screaming fans turned up at Chesswood Arena on March 12^th to see the Russian Community (The Kremlins) challenge the Finnish Community (The Finnishers) in the very first exhibition game of the Canadian Multicultural Hockey League.

It was end-to-end action from the drop of the puck with several scoring opportunities for both sides, but both goaltenders stood tall and the period ended with the score tied at 0-0.  In the second period, the Russians came out attacking trying hard to get the first goal, but were constantly being thwarted by the tough Finnish defense and their goalkeeper.  When the second period ended, the score was still tied at 0-0.

This was hardly a battle of defensive teams as both teams had opportunities to take the lead in the third period, but again the goaltenders made the difference in this one.  With less than three minutes remaining in the game and the score still tied at 0-0, the Russians finally found the crevice they were looking for and took the lead 1-0.  With less than a minute to play, the Fins pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but it was not to be this time as the Russians put the game away with an empty net goal.