THE ARENA

The next game was at the E Center, home arena of the AHL Utah Grizzlies. After spending two games at the ghetto that was Peaks, I was concerned that the E Center would be another miserable experience.

Thank God, I was wrong.

The E Center is a great building for hockey - with nice sight lines, modern facilities, ample parking, restaurants and hotels in walking distance of the arena, real concession stands, televisions in the concourse, real ushers who'd worked hockey games before, running water in the restrooms. It felt like I was in an actual arena to watch hockey and not in a makeshift ice rink held together with plywood and duct tape.

While the E Center was new and modern, it was sized for a minor league hockey team. It lacked the cavernous enormity found in many new NHL arenas. At full capacity, it only seats 12,000 (though, only 8,500 for the Olympics, with the larger international ice surface and a portion of the arena being assigned to journalists). As a result of this medium sized arena, even the cheap seats were close to the action on the ice.

Thanks to the madness that was getting out of Peaks Arena, we were late getting to this game. But man - was it a relief to walk through a real ice hockey arena.

THE CROWD

After the preliminary tournament, the last of the eight spots in the final tournament were taken by Belarus and Germany - leaving the six remaining teams to play consolation games for 9th place through 14th place.

Ukraine and Latvia were to play for 9th place. So while the game had no bearing on the medal round and was basically for pride, both of these teams wanted to make a statement that they were good enough to have been one of the final tournament teams.

So since this was just a consolation game, I was expecting a laid back crowd. Silly me, I hadn't expected the Latvians.

According to NBC Sports, one of their announcers announced earlier in the Olympics that there was "a large Latvian population in the Salt Lake City area". WHA?!? There isn't a large Latvia population in Latvia - let alone Salt Lake City. But in the stands that night, there were groups of vocal Latvian fans waving their Latvian flags. Few Ukrainian fans anywhere in sight.

THE GAME

We got to the game late, missing the first five minutes. When we got to our seats, Latvia had just built a 4-0 lead. The Ukrainian goalie got pulled - but it made little difference.

Towards the end of the first period, a penalty shot was called and Andrei Masticins of Latvia scored on goalie Konstantyn Simchuk. Interestingly, the IIHF rules regarding the awarding of penalty shots are much more lax than the NHL. While penalty shots are never called in the NHL, they're called more often in IIHF play. Too bad the NHL is so stodgy when it comes to calling them.

Latvia's goaltender was Sergei Naumov - who I'd seen before because he'd previously played for the San Diego Gulls in the WCHL.

After the first period, Latvia had a 6-0 lead and cruised to a 9-2 win - to the delight of the vocal Latvian fans.

But tomorrow was when the final tournament started. A full day waited ahead.

                        1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
    LATVIA               6    3    0        9
    UKRAINE              0    2    0        2  FINAL

    GOAL SCORING:

      1ST PRD: LAT - LEONIDS TAMBIJEVS 1 (IGORS BONDAREVS) 1:33
               LAT - HARIJS VITOLINS 2 (OLEGS SOROKINS, ALEKSANDRS KERCS)
                     2:26
               LAT - (PP) VYACHESLAVS FANDULS 3 (ANDREJS MATICINS,
                     ALEKSANDRS KERCS) 5:20
               LAT - (PP) ALEKSANDRS NIZIVIJS 2 (ALEKSANDRS MACIJEVSKIS)
                     5:56
               LAT - GRIGORIJS PANTELEJEVS 2 (ANDREJS MATICINS) 18:22
               LAT - (PS) ANDREJS MATICINS 1 19:11
      Penalties -- 
               S. Klymentiev, Ukraine (elbowing), 3:26; 
               S. Varlamov, Ukraine (roughing), 4:30; 
               S. Varlamov, Ukraine (misconduct penalty), 5:56; 
               S. Senins, Latvia (hooking), 12:17; 
               Ukraine (penalty shot), 19:11.          
               
      2ND PRD: LAT - IGORS BONDAREVS 2 (ALEKSANDRS MACIJEVSKIS, ALEKSANDRS
                     NIZIVIJS) 9:31
               LAT - VYACHESLAVS FANDULS 4 (UNASSISTED) 10:39
               UKR - DMITRI KHRISTICH 2 (IGOR CHYBIREV, YURIY GUNKO) 11:38
               UKR - IGOR CHYBIREV 2 (VALENTYN OLETSKYY, VLADISLAV SIEROV)
                     15:33
               LAT - ALEKSANDRS SEMJONOVS 1 (HARIJS VITOLINS, IGORS
                     BONDAREVS) 19:41
      Penalties -- 
               I. Chybirev, Ukraine (hooking), 12:18; 
               D. Tolkounov, Ukraine (roughing), 13:00.                
                            
      3RD PRD: NONE 
      Penalties -- 
               V. Timchenko, Ukraine (slashing), 3:02; 
               S. Senins, Latvia (holding the stick), 5:03; 
               A. Tribuncovs, Latvia (roughing), 12:56; 
               R. Salnikov, Ukraine (roughing), 18:14. 

   POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: LAT - 2 OF 5, UKR - 0 OF 3.

   SHOTS ON GOAL:       1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
                  LAT   13   15    7       35
                  UKR    9    9    8       26

         GOALIES: LAT - SERGEIS NAUMOVS
                  UKR - IGOR KARPENKO, KONSTANTINE SIMCHUK(5:20,1ST)

       OFFICIALS: REF - Rami Savolainen
                  LIN - James Donald Garofalo, Rudolf Lauff

             ATT: 8,449