Winnipegger makes trip to Finland for world junior hockey championship

The tournament may be a few thousand kilometres from the nearest Canadian coastline, but that hasn't stopped fans from heading over to Finland in droves for this year's world junior hockey championship.

Team Canada lost to the United States 4-2 on Saturday in the opening game of the tournament. Winnipegger Norman Lavallee was in the stands with his dad for that game and will remain pretty close to the ice for the remainder of the tournament.

"The love of hockey is pretty intense here for everybody," Lavallee, who is on his first trip to Europe, told CBC News via Skype Sunday. Lavallee, his father, his uncle and his father's friend bought tickets to the tournament online about a year ago.

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He said that first loss against the U.S. came as a shock to Team Canada fans at the game.

"Just took the wind out of the sail when they got the go-ahead goal late in the third there," Lavallee said.

Americans score twice late, defeat Canada 4-2

9 years ago

Duration 0:27

Team USA scored two goals, 41 seconds apart in the third period to help defeat Canada 4-2 on opening day at the IIHF World Junior Tournament in Helsinki, Finland.

"It wasn't the result we were looking for, but it's a long tournament and it's just the one game, so we'll be looking forward to the next game."

Lavallee said he's been meeting lots of Canadians on trains, on the streets and at games who've made the journey to Helsinki for the tournament just like him.

"There's a large amount of Team Canada [fans]in the stands. It feels like a home game — there's that many Canadians here," Lavallee said. "It's unreal how many Canadians travel the world to come to this tournament."

Lavallee is a season-ticket holding Jets fan, and it would be next to impossible for people sitting near him in the stands in Finland to miss that fact. He's wearing a Jets-themed pilot helmet to each game to represent Winnipeg.

Team Canada takes on Denmark Monday at noon CST. Lavallee will be in the stands.