FOLLOWING WOMEN'S HOCKEY HAS BECOME A SWEDISH-CANADIAN THING

We are big fans of women's hockey in these parts, so it bears noting that annual Four Nations Cup in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., gets underway today.

It's the first major women's tournament since the Olympics in Torino, which wasn't memorable so much for Canada winning but that Cassie Campbell, Becky Kellar, Hayley Wickenheiser, et al., beat Sweden, not the Americans in the gold medal game for a change.

There's been some upsets in the wide world of sports this year -- Canada beating the U.S. at baseball, George Mason making the Final Four at the NCAA tournament. Nothing, but nothing, though, can match goalie Kim Martin leading the Swedes to a win over the U.S. in a shootout in the Olympic semifinal on Feb. 17.

It was a combo of things: Being the brother of a goalie, having some feelings of Swedish heritage stirred up, the way Martin was stoning the American shooters, the fact I was still in a state of euphoria after completing my final shift at the Simcoe Reformer the night before... but when Sweden's Maria Rooth finished off the States in the shootout, there was a lump in my throat.

It's a long time till the 2010 Olympics, but we're interested to see if women's hockey can be more than a two-team affair. Of course the hope is for Canada to win all the time, but secretly, there's a lot of Swede support here.

Speaking of which, the Carleton Ravens have a player named Alexandra Palm who's apparently a candidate for the 2010 Swedish women's team -- Palm had a goal the other day when the relatively new Ravens team recorded their first-ever win in Quebec conference play.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.