FOUR North Vancouver inline hockey stars helped Canada to an improbable and incredible victory at the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championships held in Ingolstadt, Germany June 1-7.
The sport of inline hockey may fly under the radar for most people in Canada but for Thomas Woods, Max Grassi, Jeff Lichimo and Matt Hutchinson the tournament was very real. They now can call themselves world champions.
"I'm still trying to fathom it," Grassi told the North Shore News the day after he landed back in Canada.
The best part of it all, added Woods, was the moment after their 9-5 win over Germany when the team got to hear, and yell along to, "O Canada."
"It's a special feeling for sure to hear your anthem and to know you've done something for your country," said Woods, who combined with Grassi to score seven of Canada's nine goals in the final. "It's almost indescribable, really. We were singing our hearts out."
Woods and Grassi, longtime neighbours in the Blueridge area of North Van, have been friends since they started tot skating lessons together and that friendship is a huge part of why Canada is the world champion of inline hockey for only the second time in history. The country's last win came in 1998 and after that the sport kind of fell off the map in Canada, said Woods, a 23-year-old who has specialized in roller hockey for several years. When Woods made his first appearance at the World Championships four years ago Canada finished seventh. The year before that the country wasn't even in the top-tier world tournament, playing one group down - the equivalent of the group where countries like Italy and Great Britain are often found in ice hockey.
When Woods came home from his second world championships he went to work on his friend Max - a sometimes inline player who was more concerned with his ice hockey career, most recently with the UBC Thunderbirds - to convince him to tryout for the national team for 2011.
"I've been playing in the tournament for four years now and I would come back and we'd be hanging out and I'd be telling him, 'You gotta play - It's so much fun and it's so much bigger than you think,'" said Woods about the sales pitch he gave Grassi. "You can't really even describe what it feels like to play roller hockey in an international rink with fans and stuff. He was like, 'OK, OK.'"
Grassi, also 23, took his friend's word for it and tried out, making the team in 2011. Together they helped lead Canada to a surprise bronze medal at last year's tournament. Hutchinson, also a skilled hockey player, joined the team last year and Lichimo, a longtime friend of both Grassi and Woods, made the squad this year to round out a solid North Vancouver core on the 14-man team.
When they arrived in Germany for this year's tournament they promptly lost their first game against Slovenia. With powerful teams from the United States, Sweden and Czech Republic generating most of the buzz - NHLer Ales Hemsky suited up for the Czech team - the Canadians were still very much underdogs despite their bronze medal showing in 2011. Gold was a dream, but not a very realistic one, said Woods.
"It wasn't even in my realm of possibilities. We wanted to be the best but for me, looking at some of the other teams and how long they've played together, some of the pro guys on those teams, I was like, OK, it's still going to be a while before we can get that gold."
But Canada started winning and the favourites started losing. The Canadians found their way into the playoffs where good play and good fortune saw them through to the final without playing the top-ranked U.S. or Czech squads.
Roller hockey may seem like a fringe sport here in Canada but there was nothing small-time about the scene that greeted the Canadians for the World Championship final against Germany, in Germany.
"It was packed, the place was crazy. It seats around 5,000 people and it was sold out," said Grassi. "It was full and the crowd is like, all over you. It's loud and they have all their chants and stuff. It's not really like North American crowds. We don't really have chants and drums and stuff going and that's kind of their thing."
The noise, added Woods, was incredible. "It's kind of hard to explain. You can't even hear yourself think. The crowds there, it's a lot different than here. You go to a Canucks game and it's kind of quiet and everyone's in their seats. You go there and everyone has jerseys and everyone's chanting. There's no lull in the game."
Grassi began the process of quieting the crowd early, scoring just seconds into the game. Canada built up a 6-2 lead but the Germans came storming back, stirring the crowd into a frenzy as they cut the lead to 6-5.
"It became pretty overwhelming, the crowd was so loud and the place was just buzzing," said Grassi. "We got a 7-5 goal and that silenced the crowd there and really killed the momentum. It was definitely the turning point in the game because then we went on to win 9-5. That was a huge goal for us to get because it was starting to turn in their favour there. If they tied that game there then, whoof, who knows what would've happened."
The Woods and Grassi combination - separated on the top two lines for regular play and meshing perfectly on the team's dominant power play unit - led the way as time ticked down on their championship win. Grassi finished tied for second in the tournament with 17 total points while Woods tied for fourth with 15.
"We live about two blocks apart here (in North Van) and combined for seven goals in a gold medal game for our country," said Grassi. "It's pretty special when it's one of my best friends, we've known each other growing up since we were five years old playing ball hockey together."
The team members are hoping this win will bring a little more recognition and funding to the sport in Canada. Right now players have to scramble to raise funds and find sponsors to pay their way to the tournament. The team had just one practice as a full squad in Canada before heading over to Germany.
"We're hoping in the future we can get enough support where we can get enough funding to be able to just get a team together earlier and not have to worry about each individual player bugging everyone for sponsors or paying for our own trip," said Grassi, adding that they'd love to build up their relationship with Hockey Canada.
"We're kind of back on top right now so we want to keep it that way," said Grassi. "I think we've got a good thing going here. It's hockey in Canada - it's what we like to be good at."
