Norway’s national hockey team was knocked out of world championship competition on Thursday but remains proud of their own performance. They lost to Russia, by a score of 5-2, but the players and their coach think they’re leaving the championships with heads held high.
“We’re really satisfied with the whole process,” player Patrick Thoresen told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) after the game was over on Thursday evening. The team played impressively during the past week and made it to the quarter-finals, “but we do have to do better,” Thoresen said after the loss in at the world championships in Stockholm.
Russia is known as a powerhouse team and the Norwegians think they shook them up a bit, playing aggressively and keeping the score tied on two occasions. “In matches like this, we can clearly win in the future,” Thoresen said. He and his teammates now have their eye on the Winter Olympics in 2014 and then they don’t merely want to “nearly win,” but actually advance all the way to the finals.
The team was disappointed to learn, though, that their popular coach Roy Johansen has decided to quit when the Olympics are over. Johansen has coached the national team since 2001 and thinks it’s time for a change.
“There are other things I want to do,” Johansen told NRK.”Everyone needs to move on at some time, and it’s natural that others take over after the Olympics.”
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