I haven't been to a Fargo Force Hockey game for a few years. I'm an accurately self described non Hockey fan. I don't dislike it per se I just didn't grow up with it and don't enjoy it as much as most other sports. Even with that in mind, a Hockey game from years ago in Grand Forks is the biggest viewing miss that I know of. Before he became an international star, Sydney Crosby competed as an amateur. My dad and brothers went to see the match, for reasons that have never been clear but I opted to skip it.
Well when faced with a similar possibility I didn't make the same choice. On Friday night one of the team USA juniors teams came to Fargo. I'm not saying that any player from either the Force or team USA will even sniff the Kids production at the highest level of the sport but if the future plays out that way, at least I can say I was there, however the future plays out.
The competition on the ice was distinctly one sided. At the end of the second period Fargo had more then four times the number of shots on goal then their opponents could muster. That was symptomatic of the dominance that was clear even to my eyes. When a bunch of 17 & under's go up against a team jammed with players that are both older and more experienced playing together it probably should be one sided but it was still very eye opening!
In the long run it's probably better for the future of the sport that team USA was handled so thoroughly because the taste that it should leave in the mouths of those youngsters should be motivation for them as they compete in the next levels of it. At college and maybe in the NHL. One lose is just one loss. A small thing but if those athletes are able to utilize it the right way going forward that small thing could be like a snowball starting an avalanche. And, years from now, if it plays out that way for even one of those under seventeeners it will have been worth it to simultaneously support the local team and see future greatness.