The scene was striking. Arm in arm, the players of Team Ukraine Select and the little Boston Bruins listened solemnly to the national anthems of their two respective countries. Another sign that Saturday’s long-awaited match at the Tournoi pee-wee de Québec went far beyond hockey.
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In the stands of a Videotron center, the vast majority of fans had dressed in white as a sign of support for Ukraine and gave a nice and noisy welcome to young Ukrainians – just like the Boston Bruins for that matter.
Once the national anthems were over, the fans in the stands all turned on their cell phones to demonstrate, once again, that they were behind Ukraine.
Nervousness
As expected, there was nervousness on both sides in front of this imposing crowd.
During the warm-up, two Ukrainians collided while others waited for the pucks that had not been brought to the bench. Like everyone was nervous!
But once the match started, Team Ukraine Select lived up to the reputation they had built over the past few days by showing off their speed and skill. The young crowd favorites dominated their opponents in the first two periods of play but came up against rock-solid Bruins goaltender James Boccuzzi.
And the brilliance of the goalkeeper allowed his team to open the scoring for Boston when Kai Ochi beat Dmytro Korzh at the start of the third period.
DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Lupadin plays the heroes
But by dint of trying, Team Ukraine Select managed to solve the Boccuzzi enigma when Yehor Kosenko, well placed at the right mouth of the goal, finally opened the scoring for his team to sow hysteria in the Videotron Center.
Then, we experienced a scene already seen at the Pee-Wee Tournament! Seconds after Kosenko’s goal, Denys Lupandin beat Boccuzzi to give Ukraine the lead. Remember that his father, Andrei, made an impression by being the best player in the legendary Druzhba-78 team in 1992. He was also behind the team’s bench.
DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
This same Lupandin subsequently closed the books, in an empty net.
After the game, the Bruins and the Ukrainians marched, side by side, on the ice to thank the crowd.
Because in the end, everyone had won.