Women's Ice Hockey World Championships

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Keane_Yandow]Keane Yandow
Women's World Championships Come to Vermont
There's nothing like a good hockey game. It doesn't matter if it's a high scoring affair between a group of local Squirts or a 2-2 Stanley Cup finals game headed to overtime, they're just fun to watch. Both my 12 and 10-year-old daughters play hockey and their games are no exception. Last year, Emma, my 12-year-old, played for our local U12 team which earned a trip to the New England Regional tournament. Although the girls came within a game of playing in the Nationals, the most memorable part for me was the feeling that despite the young age of our girls, it felt like watching big time hockey. The fans were on the edge of their seats and every rush down the ice was filled with either excitement or fear, depending on which team controlled the puck. While the girls fell short of their ultimate goal, last year's accomplishments made us all very excited about the upcoming year of hockey. When the site of the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championships were announced, there became another reason to get excited!
Little old Vermont, home of the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain, has been chosen to host the prestigious IIHF Women's Championships starting in April. It is, for the thousands of hockey fans in our state, a very big deal. Many of us have had our children play at the rink where Slovakia and Sweden open the tournament on April 7th. Slovakia and Sweden? Here? Playing at Cairns Arena? No Way!................Way!
You want more? How about the mighty U.S. Women's National Team playing their Canadian rivals from the north later that same day at our cherished   rel=nofollow [http://www.uvm.edu/campus/gutterson/gutterson.html]Gutterson Field House. These are the same teams that battle in the Olympics. These are the same women my kids have seen play on television. These are the same women that our kids look up to and want to be like, and they're playing right here! I'm sure that come January, when the new calendars come out, my daughter Lizzie will start crossing out the days in anticipation of that day in April.
While the USA and Canada are clearly the headliners of the tournament, there are a host of other teams that have a legitimate shot at winning it all. Finland and Russia join the two North American teams in the "A" bracket, while Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Germany make up the competitors in the "B" bracket. It's gonna be wild!
Personally, I can't wait either. Like I said, I love watching good hockey and this is going to be the best women's hockey anywhere in the world. Oh, I'll be watching alright, but out of the corner of my eye I'll be watching my girls as they see firsthand the women that they aspire to be like. It's going to be very, very special.
Keane has always been passionate about hockey. He currently helps run a website where they sell [http://www.hockeyhelmetspro.com]hockey helmets and all varieties of hockey equipment.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Womens-Ice-Hockey-World-Championships&id=6546513] Women's Ice Hockey World Championships