Sochi Olympic hockey arena’s roof lights up awesomely for goals (photos)

SOCHI, Russia — The Bolshoy Ice Dome is home to the marquee men’s hockey games in the Sochi Olympics, beginning with the Sweden-Czech Republic game on Wednesday night.

Every time there’s a game on the ice, the roof above it lights up with the national flags of the teams in the game, as well as the scoreboard. It can be viewed from around the Olympic Park, in the Olympic Village and, we imagine, from parts of Mars.

But things get really interesting when one of those teams scores a goal, as Sweden did twice in the first period. The scoreboard changes, and an incredible animation flashes across the roof depicting an exploding puck and the word “GOAL.”

[Related: Jonathan Quick named starting goalie for Team USA]

Here comes the puck!

That’s more than 38,000 LED lights flashing around the roof every night at the Bolshoy Ice Dome.

[Photos: Canada rallies to beat USA in women's hockey showdown]

Hope they have the power capacity for that Canada-Austria game coming up.

So on top of everything else that comes along with being an Olympian, hockey players have the chance to not only light the lamp but also the stadium. Pretty cool.

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Greg Wyshynski is the editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @wyshynski