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Coach Kris' New Puck...

Wednesday, 19 February 2014 00:10

ED. Tri stud Dan Arlandson was reading the Wall Street Journal online on Monday and was pleasantly surprised when he saw this article. By the way, in Russian, Sochi is spelled "C-O-4-backward N." How cool is that! It's a Cyrillic deal.

By Jason Gay (blogs.wsj.com)

There’s been some groaning about the souvenir shortage in Olympic Park — what to bring home to show your pals you schlepped all the way to Russia?

Kris Swarthout, a 42-year-old may have snagged the keepsake of these Games thus far: a stray puck from Saturday’s epic, overtime-then-shootout USA-Russia hockey game. The grab was impressive.

The puck flew over the glass early in the first period, and despite being vastly outnumbered by Russian fans in the 12,000 capacity Bolshoy Ice Dome, Swarthout — dressed in a vintage Mike Modano Team USA jersey — made a clean pick....

“It was in slow-motion,” an ebullient Swarthout said during intermission between the first and second period. “I palmed it. I couldn’t have played it any better.”

Swarthout, a hockey fanatic who had memories of the 1980 Lake Placid miracle and owned season tickets to Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey, was leaving Sochi for the States the next day. He already had the puck tucked away safely in a backpack.

“We’re kind of keeping it under wraps,” he said. Would he consider selling it? “Sell it? This is going in an acrylic box and be on my desk,” Swarthout said. “It’s going to be my Facebook photo.”