“You’re just sitting down watching the warmup and all of a sudden you see all these security guards coming and here comes Mr. (Stephen) Harper up the stairs,” Kavli said from Toronto Tuesday morning.
The Corner Brook couple ended up sitting in the same row with the prime minister three seats away as Canada eked out a dramatic 5-4 win over rival Russia to claim its first world junior gold medal in five years.
They got their picture taken with the prime minister so that’s a keepsake from a venture Kavli said was simply like nothing he ever experienced before in his life.
When tickets went on sale for the annual tradition Kavli was eager to purchase a couple of tournament passes for the games being staged at the Air Canada Centre, including the bronze- and gold-medal games. He ended up with a package that would afford him the chance to watch 19 games, but he ended up selling off a bunch of tickets for the games he couldn’t attend. They couldn’t be there for the entire tournament that started on Boxing Day with the preliminary round.
They got to watch nine games in total.
“I’d do it all over again,” Kavli said.
Kavli, who lives in Corner Brook with Decker, is an avid runner and grew up playing minor and junior hockey in Corner Brook. He also coached the Humber Valley Red Wings to the championship crown in the now-defunct Central West Junior Hockey League in 2011.
He always wanted to watch junior hockey on its biggest stage, so when he saw the event was being co-hosted by two of Canada’s biggest hockey markets he went about his way to make it all happen.
The atmosphere was electric. A packed house with everybody cheering on the boys, including the prime minister, who Kavli thought was pretty animated at times during a game where the home team almost let a four-goal lead slip away, only to hang on as the Russians pressed to the final buzzer.
“Everyone got their Team Canada gear on and the whole place is rocking. It’s the loudest stadium I’ve ever been in,” he said.
They got a close glimpse of the players before they went onto the ice and even got to say hello to a couple. The interaction between the players when they came out through the tunnel to young boys and girls offering high-fives and well wishes made him feel great about the journey.
Decker, meanwhile, only became familiar with hockey two years ago when she met Kavli, who joked that he has been trying to get her to become a fan of the game since they met.
She admits she asks a lot of questions about hockey because it’s unchartered waters for her, but she now has a better understanding of how big this tournament is, for not only the players, but Canadians coast to coast.
“From beginning to end it was absolutely out of this world,” Decker said.
She slowly got caught up in the excitement ringing through the building. She was particularly interested in seeing how former Canadian junior players like Sidney Crosby and Carey Price were featured in videos throughout the tournament. It gave her a better sense of what was at stake.
“It’s then I realized how big these players are going to be,” she said. “You could sense and feel the excitement of everybody there.”
Kavli had watched many gold-medal games on television in the 25-year history of the annual Christmas showcase tournament.
It pales in comparison to being immersed in a crowded house watching live as a nation stood on its feet to cheer on a golden performance.
