Five years ago tomorrow, we hit the high point of our epic trip to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi: Mrs. Fan and I were in the stands for the USA-Russia hockey game that culminated in the epic shootout seen in the video above.

We had seats about 15 rows up, in the net to the left — where Sergei Bobrovsky was stationed for the shootout. So we got to see all of Team USA’s shootout attempts up close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here’s Pavelski’s shootout try in USA-Russia. After that I put away the phone. #Sochi2014 #nofilter

A post shared by Edward de la Fuente (@edelafuente) on Feb 15, 2014 at 8:26am PST

Because I was too nervous about Team USA’s fate to keep taking videos, I missed out on my shot to document the birth of the T.J. Sochi legend. But within a couple hours, quite a few friends back home had contacted us via social media to express excitement — and, yes, even jealousy — over the fact that we were there. And that, of course, is when you really feel the international impact of the trip you’ve taken.

It’s been five years and I can definitely say we have not taken as incredible a trip since. I do miss Russia sometimes, so to wax nostalgic I’ll sometimes go back and read all the posts I wrote about it back then. Good times.