We played the early game on Sunday afternoon against the Kings at the Ice Arena. It was our biggest victory to date in terms of score. We played with ten skaters and Tommy in goal. The Kings had eight skaters plus goalie. I found out after the game that the Kings had had their star centre promoted up to First Division (he'd been dominating the ice too much in the five previous games).
We scored our first goal after half a minute, the second was seven minutes later. In the second period we scored within the first two minutes, and then again five minutes later. The only penalties were simultaneous slashing and roughing minors given to Aaron for his striking back at their goalie for her constant chipping at our player's feet, and subsequently pushing their D into the boards when that unfortunate skated in to defend his goalie. On the subsequent penalty kill we scored a short handed goal and they got onto the board with one of their own. Five minutes later we put on our sixth goal. In the final forty seconds of the game we scored our seventh, and they put in a final rushed goal with three seconds to go.
We had three players who scored three points on the day, with five others scoring at least a point. We now sit second on the ladder, one game behind the Flyers (our season opener victory over them being their only defeat). We lead the table in penalty minutes, and have the two most penalised players. Next week we play the lowly placed Sharks.
I played around twenty four minutes on the ice. I started on the wing for a couple of shifts, was just making the mental adjustment from having played defence so far this season when was given first option to go back to defence. I had no problems with doing this and played out the rest of the game there, generally partnering Mike. I was given the option to go back on offence if I wished, but I was more than happy learning my chops on D (one also gets more ice time on a the back end). I didn't get any points but was on the ice for three of our goals. I was also present when they scored their power play goal (though I didn't have any direct input around their scoring play).
My two shifts on the wing were played in the offensive zone, nothing
particularly memorable in them except that I was beginning to get the
feel of it again by the time I was given the option of moving back into
defence.
For a change, I didn't ice the puck once, wasn't caught offside, didn't pass the puck offside, didn't have any of my passes intercepted. I kept the puck in their zone a couple of times, and several times held it in the neutral zone before relaunching the attack. Did a couple of nice D to D passes in these circumstances. I was not involved in the play which resulted in their first goal, this despite being out there on the penalty kill. The only advice I was given on my play through the game was after a couple shifts on D when Coach gave me some guidance on positioning (the concept of one up, one back) which I followed from then on.
I had a couple of shots towards goal from the point in the first period, neither with a chance of going in as I effectively put it into a melee of players before the crease. These were my only shots all game, the rest of it was generally in a containment role (when we were in attack) or last line defence.
I lost my feet from under me on four occasions when skating. Once in the first when back checking on a rushing forward with no one else between me and the goalie. I managed to control my slide so that still kept the opposition on the outside, giving time for our centre to get involved. I also fell down once on the break (transition) with no loss except a possible scoring opportunity (I would have been clear into the O zone if hadn't fallen) and once in the corner.
My most dramatic play was the fourth time I lost my feet. It was in the third period and I'd come out from the right corner to protect the goal from two lurking forwards. Two of us tangled and we both went down, me releasing my stick in the move so that I didn't get called for tripping. The puck was on the ice in front of my loose stick as I could see the second forward coming in for the shot, our goalie was down and out of position behind me. I didn't try and grab my stick, instead pushed it with both hands to block the shot (which I did, twice, the second time the forward came down). Then there was a welter of sticks and blades and skates striking at the puck, with my stick the main line of containment until others piled in also. Eventually there were four bodies on the ice, me and my stick on the bottom, when Tommy finally got his glove over the pile and onto the puck and brought on the whistle.
I was pretty happy with my role in this one. It was nice to have a nice win. After the game we thought that we'd been much better with our on ice communication. To me, this was confirmed in separate conversations I had with three Kings players I know after the game. All of them independently brought up the fact that our passing had been very good. I saw this as a consequence of our increased chatter. I also know that a couple of times when I either got drawn down on the offence or onto the left boards in defence (and thus out of position) I was able to direct either my wing or D partner to cover my zone, and they did. Good stuff.
My knee gave no grief. This is good as it is now five weeks since I got trampled, I was hoping to be returning to full capacity by now. Although I continue to tape it when skating I am now at the point where I need to work on its flexibility, and get back to building strength in the legs and core more generally while I rebuild my match fitness. I didn't suffer any lasting effect from playing inline hockey the night before so the back to back games every weekend might be having their own positive effect in this respect.
Next weekend, Wheelers v Rockers and Knights v Sharks.
GP 4 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 +2 3/1/0
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