Day 3 - Sunday December 11
The 3rd Indoor Pan American Cups concluded today in Rim Park, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with double gold for the home team.
Double Gold for Canada
The men's final between Canada and Trinidad & Tobago was a tense affair, with T&T quickly on the board by Wayne Legerton.
Canada came back within a minute on a superb goal by Scott Sandison, but T&T took again the advantage by Kwan Browne.
Canada managed to tie the score through Wayne Fernandes but T&T controlled most of the play in this first half, stealing Canadian passes in midfield and quickly creating dangerous opportunities. Mike Mahood played superbly in the Canadian goal and kept the half-time score at 2-2.
Canada progressively took control of the game in the second half, but their third goal by Jeewanjot Bath was immediately neutralized by Dwain Quan Chan, on a quick free hit at the top of the circle.
Canada edged ahead after Wayne Fernandes scored on a penalty stroke, but T&T replaced their goal-keeper by a field player and put intense pressure on the Canadian defense and midfield.
They were nearly rewarded, but a goal by Cregan Joseph in the last two minutes put the game out of reach.
With this 5-3 win, Canada keeps it Indoor Pan American title. The Pan American Hockey Federation will be well represented at the 2007 World Cup by Canada and Trinidad & Tobago!
With only one team qualifying for the 2007 Indoor World Cup, the women's final was actually the qualifier for the tournament, putting additional pressure on the two teams.
Canada got quickly into the game and took control of the play. They displayed more speed but were consistently denied by a steady USA defence.
At the end of the first period, they only had one goal to show for their domination (a penalty corner by Andrea Rushton), leaving the game wide open.
Rushton scored another penalty-corner early in the second period, giving some breathing space to her team, but this was short lived as Tara Jelley scored a field goal to reduce the gap.
Canada somewhat lost its composure for a while, giving renewed hope to the USA. Despite a few close calls, the score was still 2-1 with a couple minutes to go, when USA replaced their goal-keeper by an additional field player, increasing even more their pressure to force overtime.
With the crowd on the edge of their seat and yelling their support, the Canadian women held tight to earn the Gold Medal and the Pan American birth for the 2007 Indoor World Cup in Vienna.
In the men's bronze medal game, a somewhat dispirited USA team let Guyana build a large lead of four goals before staging a comeback to tie the game at 6-6 and force overtime again.
This time, they didn't waste time and Steve Danielson scored a quick field goal to earn USA the bronze medal.
In the women's bronze game, Trinidad & Tobago increased their lead regularly to win 8-0.
Players of the Tournament: Andrea Rushton (Canada) , Kwandwane Browne (Trinidad & Tobago)
Results
Men
Bronze Medal: USA 7 Guyana 6 (extra time)
Final: Canada 5 Trinidad & Tobago 3
Women
Bronze Medal: Trinidad & Tobago 8 Venezuela 0
Final: Canada 2 USA 1
Final Standings
Men
1. Canada
2. Trinidad & Tobago
3. USA
4. Guyana
5. Venezuela
Women
1. Canada
2. USA
3. Trinidad & Tobago
4. Venezuela
