Feb 28, 2012

European Champs

Pictures from European Cup in Finland, the pictures are borrowed
and belongs to Rainer Gmach, Steve Hermann and Me:

Den sista matchen mot HPK var tuff till en början. Vi
inledde målskyttet med de kvitterade snabbt till 1-1. Efter andra perioden
drog vi ifrån och vann den tredje och sista matchen i Europa Cup finalen
med 5-1. Helt underbar avslutning på en bra turnering.

Bucklan höjs och alla är trötta men lyckliga!

Stolt står vi på blålinjen och tjejerna sjunger den Ryska nationalsången högt.

Jag, Kim och Elin med bucklan.

Älskar att få pussa bucklan, inte varje dag man blir bäst i Europa,
bara att njuta. Har vunnit Europa Cupen med AIK 4 gånger och
nu en femte med Tornado, stolt.

Jag och två gamla lagkamrater i AIK. Vi spelade alla i olika lag och mot
varandra denna turnering. Meier och Lehmann, tack för alla fina minnen.

Nästan sist men inte minst :) Pappa! Tack för att du kom och hejjade på mig
och mitt Tornado. Du är med mig världen över och jag uppskattar din
support av hela mitt hjärta. Mamma, mislim na tebe!

Katia med bucklan.

Ett helt underbart segerfoto med så många häftiga ansiktsuttryck, älskar det!
Tornado European Champions 2012.

Ja & Kim i omklädningsrummet efter.

Festen började i omklädningsrummet med Champange.


Partyt kan börja!

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Efter matchen var det en liten avslutning med laget som ledarna hade
anordnat. Enligt tradition höll alla varsitt tal och drack ur bucklan.
Det blev en bra avslutning på en bra helg med musik, dans, intriger
och skratt. Spasibo devochki!

Efter lite party och en timmes sömn var det dags att lämna Finland
för Moskva.

Vår lag chaufför och buss kom och plockade upp oss i Moskva
och körde oss till Dmitrov där vi packade upp våra trunkar.

Det dröjde inte en lång stund innan man var tillbaka i verkligheten,
en död mus i omklädningsrummet. Lyxliv? Njet men va gör man
inte för att få leva sin dröm.

Danni



Feb 27, 2012

LEV här och nu, Lev för din skull, sen kanske aldrig kommer!!

Feb 26, 2012

European Cup Champions

We won the European Cup, Tornado is Champions!!!

Danni

For you Katrina

This is Katrina Cameron, she is 15 years old. She has a brain tumor which is being treated by chemotherapy. She has had, I believe 4 or 5 treatments, has lost her hair, and a lot of muscle and weight. She is a very positive person and a real fighter. She and her family are keeping a strong determined front and she has I think 3 more chemo treatments to go. We have our own family and also our hockey family.

As a "big sister" in our hockey family I wanna give you all my strength girl and I want to honor you and play todays game for you.

Loads of Love from your Swedish big sister Danni

Final game in the European Cup

We won the second game yesterday against Planegg 9-1, the team from Germany. So that means that we´r in the final today. We play the Finnish team HPK at 6pm local time.

Vi vann vår andra match igår mot Planegg med 9-1, det Tyska laget. Så det betyder att vi spelar en "final" idag. Vi spelar mot det Finska laget HPK kl 18.00 finsk tid. (17.00 svensk tid).

Idag spelar jag inte bara för mig själv, mina lagkamrater, min familj och alla mina fans. Jag spelar också för en tjej som har det lite tufft just nu. Jag lägger upp ett eget inlägg som är tillägnat en speciell tjej.

Danni

Feb 24, 2012

First win

We won todays game against Zurich Lions, 2-1. It was a close game, and not that good for 2 periods. The third one was better and we won the shots with 26-5, total 49-26.

You find pictures at IIHF´s website.

Better head to bed now, second game tomorrow.

Danni

IIHF interview

Swedish national team players Elin Holmlöv, Kim Martin and Danijela Rundqvist all star for Tornado Moscow Region this season. Photos: Richard Wolowicz / Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images / EC Dornbirn

HÄMEENLINNA, Finland – The final tournament of the European Women’s Champions Cup starts today with teams from Finland, Germany, Russia and Switzerland. Among the players are three Swedish internationals who set their sights on the EWCC title with Tornado Moscow Region.

“I see us as favourites, and I know that if we are playing as well as we are able to, we should win all three games,” said Tornado forward Danijela Rundqvist, feeling confident ahead of the tournament, set to be played between 24-26 February in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

The Russian club, which stormed through the previous round in Dornbirn, Austria, touches down in Finland as pre-tournament favourites and the top-seeded team in the battle for the EWCC trophy against hosts HPK Hämeenlinna, ZSC Lions Zurich from Switzerland and German champion ESC Planegg at the Metritiski Areena.

The signing of three Swedish national team players – Rundqvist, Elin Holmlöv and Kim Martin – ahead of this season has been mutually beneficial. Tornado is a perennial contender in women’s club hockey, and the Scandinavian women were able to play the game they love – and make a living out of it – while getting more opportunities to play in international club tournaments than back home in Sweden.

“I am living my dream here,” said Rundqvist on her life in Dmitrov, 65 kilometres north of Moscow. “I am now able to live 100% as a hockey player and also be able to pay my rent and expenses and it feels great.”

The 27-year-old Swede spent last season in Canada with the Burlington Barracudas, playing against the crème de la crème in the CWHL. Although making great strides playing-wise during her spell in Ontario, living on a shoestring budget and paying most expenses out of her own pocket started to take its toll. So when Tornado came calling, it was an opportunity too good to turn down.

Her sentiment was shared by the two Swedish University of Minnesota alumni, Elin Holmlöv and netminder Kim Martin, who quickly followed suit, with all three Scandinavian recruits signing up for a one-year deal with the Russian club.

Arriving to their new home in Dmitrov – a tidy looking town with just over 60,000 inhabitants – without a grasp of the Russian language can be a daunting task. But Frida Nevalainen, a former Tornado defender who blazed the trail last season as the first Swedish player in the Russian league before moving on to archrivals SKIF Nizhni Novgorod, reassured that they were in good hands, and so far the trio have been mightily impressed by the set-up at Tornado.

“We have full-time coaches, we have a manager, a club director and they are always available to us. From our club office they take great care of everything surrounding visas and documents, so the club is very professionally run and I am delighted to have been offered such an opportunity,” said Rundqvist.

Considering its relatively brief history, the standard of the Russian women’s game has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years. But according to Holmlöv, the Russian game and its six-team league has still some catching up to do with the leading nations ahead of the Winter Olympics on home ice in Sochi 2014.

“Having played in the U.S. the last few years, the main difference is that college hockey is more intense and played at a faster pace than here in Russia. In Sweden, the level of the teams is of a more even standard than here in Russia where it's very much us against SKIF,” said the 24-year-old forward.

“But what is very positive here is that we have time to focus on playing the game. We have a very strong team with around ten national team players from Russia, the three of us playing for Sweden, Jana Kapustova from Slovakia, Melissa Jaques from Canada and a bunch of talented up-and-coming players, so we are developing during our practice sessions, which are very intense," said Holmlöv.

The daily routine for the Swedish Tornado players follow the same pattern: ice practice in the morning, later the gym and then lunch at the arena. Once training has finished, the door is wide open for the players to try and embrace a new culture.

“Kim and I have visited St. Petersburg and Moscow,” said Rundqvist. “Otherwise we watch KHL hockey, visit the bowling alley, eat out at times, go to the tanning salon and watch movies on the laptop.”

“It is a life without stress and we have a lot of time outside of hockey,” said Holmlöv. “Living and playing ice hockey in Russia is an experience and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to come here. I've learnt a lot about myself and also developed a great deal of patience since I’ve been here.”

“You learn something new each day and take note of the differences with the Swedish way of live.

I remember the time when Melissa Jaques and I went grocery shopping and ended up using Google translate with four of the staff surrounding us trying to figure out what it was we were looking for. We stood there laughing together with these four incredibly helpful ladies and although we never found what we originally were after, we were nevertheless content. Small matters you can deal with at home with ease suddenly become difficult and it happens quite often here, but it's nice to see how helpful people can be.”

A new lease of life in Russia seems to have worked out well for the Swedish trio so far. They all featured prominently when Sweden defeated Finland, Germany and Russia during last weekend’s four nations tournament on home ice in Oskarshamn. Goaltender Martin who then made her 200th appearance for Sweden is now looking forward for continued success at the EWCC finals, but doesn’t take anything for granted, not even a starting place between the pipes.

“I was out injured for ten weeks, but I am back to full fitness again,” said Martin, who was deputized in her absence by Anna Prugova, the 18-year-old goalkeeper who has been Russia’s number one in the net since last season.

”We will now have to wait and see who the coach wants in goal, but I am very much looking forward to the tournament. All the teams taking part are good, so it will definitely going to be tough,” said Martin.

The final tournament opens today with the Finnish hosts HPK Hämeenlinna playing Germany’s ESC Planegg at 14:00 local time. Tornado Moscow Region will face EWCC rookies ZSC Lions Zurich from Switzerland at 18:00.

IIHF.com will provide live scores on the tournament page.

HENRIK MANNINEN

Feb 23, 2012

Suomi

Idag gick planet från Moskva till Finland och Helsingfors.

Flyget gick snabbt som vanligt eftersom jag bara var vaken 5min utav 1 1/2h.
Jag och min Ipod på bussen upp till Hämeenlinna, älskar musik. Så härligt
att sitta på bussen, titta ut genom fönstret, lyssna på musik och tänka på
allt mellan himmel och jord. Innan match blir det lite mer drag i låtarna.

Väl framme i HPK´s ishall, packar vi upp våra hockeytrunkar.

Två glada tjejer, Kim hittade Candy king (Karamellkungen godis) och jag
fick tag i en glass med Dumle sås, tror ni den va god?! Jaaaa!!

Ikväll är det bankett med middag för alla deltagande lag men
imorgon smäller det, let the best man win!

Danni

Feb 22, 2012

European Cup

European Cup schedule for the weekend:

24/2 18.00 Lions vs Tornado

25/2 14.00 Tornado vs Planegg

26/2 18.00 HPK vs Tornado

We play all the games in Hämeenlinna (1 hour north of Helsinki). The rink is called Ritarii Arena.

This is why I play

Imorgon flyger vi till Helsingfors för att sedan ta oss vidare till Hämeenlina. På fredag börjar det jag och mitt lag har väntat på hela säsongen, 3 av våra viktigaste matcher skall spelas. Vi spelar finalspel i Europa cupen för klubblag med vårt Ryska lag Tornado. Jag sitter hemma i mitt kök och tänker på hur kul det skall bli att spela dessa bra och tuffa matcher. Inte för att det kommer bli bekvämt på något sätt. Det är mer som ett test, kommer vi klara av att vinna över några av Europas bästa lag? Kommer all vår träning belöna sig? Har jag gjort allt det som krävs för att ta mitt lag till seger? Kommer vi kunna spela för varandra? Jag vet att vi har ett starkt lag på papper och jag skall göra allt i min makt för att hjälpa mitt lag vinna matcher i helgen. Vi åker till Finland utan någon som helst garanti men viljan har vi, det vet jag. Det är ju dessa matcher jag tränat för hela året. Att få utmana de bästa är ju det vi vill och ingenting är bättre än att vinna över dem. Känslan man får när man gör mål eller se sin lagkamrat sätta pucken bakom motståndarens mål, det är det jag lever för.

Detta har jag gjort de senaste halvåret:

Knutit på mig skridskorna hundratals gånger och satt på mig utrustningen.

Spenderat massvis med timmar på gymmet med mina lagkamrater.
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Svettats hundratals timmar på isen.

Svettats utanför isen.

Ätit massvis med ägg. Fyllt på med protein, kolhydrater,
vitaminer och mineraler. Vatten och dricka.

Gjort allt om och om igen.

Å igen.

Rest massor, tidiga mornar, sena kvällar, mitt i natten, bussresor
och flygit världen över.

Fått sätta på mig matchtröjan och stolt representerat mitt klubblag
samt Damkronorna.

Gjort det jag är bra på och alltid gjort mitt bästa. Alltid velat
lagets bästa och supportat alla i min närhet.

Varit på träningsläger i andra länder och fått pratat ett annat språk,
kroppsspråk.

Allt detta för att jag ska bli en bättre spelare, för att kunna bidra till att laget vinner matcher.

Lets Go Tornado lets GO! Davaj!

Danni

Rehab

Remember to do your rehab exercises. As a hockeyplayer you usually have problem with some part of your body. I do some rehab exercises everyday when I am warming up for my practise. Just take a couple of minutes, you will feel how much stronger you get only after a couple of weeks and you will last for a hole season. This blue elastic band is great to work with and easy to bring wherever you go.

Kom ihåg att göra dina rehab övningar. Som hockeyspelare så har du oftast problem med någon kroppsdel. Jag gör lite rehab övningar varje dag, i uppvärmningen inför min träning. Det tar bara några minuter, du kommer att känna skillnaden och styrkan redan efter några veckor och du kommer också hålla hela säsongen ut. Mitt blåa gummiband är kanon att jobba med och lätt att ta med vart du än ska.

Danni

Feb 21, 2012

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true

Sunny tuesday

At home, had a great and fun workout this morning. We played basketball,
did some jumping and some core today.

Hockey tape is the best.

We went climbing today after our practise,
so much fun.

I am up there.

Centrera
Trying to find the balace.

Done!

Melissa, Elin, Kim and I, we survived!

My russian lunch, me like.

Danni

Feb 20, 2012

Good start



Startaded this morning with 1 1/2h on ice. We had a good one,
and finished with som PP.

Then off to the gym, I am so sore in my bum and legs from the
jumping yesterday. Some streching for Dani, oh yes!

Girls, everyone needs their skates sharpened at the same time and
at the same day haha.

Kim and I.

Only three more days in Dmitrov before we fly to Helsinki and
play the European cup in Hämmelina, excited.

Danni