Day 4 - First Tournament Game & Brunch with Billet Families

Game Day at the Colisée Pepsi.  Outside the arena, though the day had begun sunny, it was extremity-numbing cold (I would later learn that the day's high was a mere 3 degrees Fahrenheit).  Inside, any lingering physical discomfort had been quickly displaced by nervous anticipation.  The venue, with seating capacity for 15,176, is normally home for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, but was now hosting the 53rd Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament 2012.  Though many of the seats were unfilled, the cheers and shouts from the players' "natural" and billet families were genuine and encouraging.  However, on this day, our heroes did not play up to expectations with Kharkov Druzhba 78 (Ukraine) defeating our San Jose Jr. Sharks 10-2.  The bright spot was two quality goals: a Daylon Mannon slapshot and a Matthew Durst deflection.

After the game, we all went to brunch where we got to meet the billet organizers and our billet families, if we hadn't already.  It is absolutely amazing the generosity of their time and passion for this sport that these people exhibit!  When the team discovered that it was a billet organizer's birthday, they eagerly sang the birthday song only to fall comically silent at his name, which was "Ketan".  It was also a sight to see Robert Savoie wolf down a slice of sugar pie a la mode, a common dessert found only in Quebec.