Game Day - Shufflers (6) d Wheelers (3)

On Saturday night we went down to the Shufflers 6-3 in an exhausting game.  We only had four skaters plus our goalie, the Shufflers had five skaters for most of the game plus Nat in the goals.  I won't complain about Nat being their goalie (it's often a case of make do with the goalie situation) but it was a bit of a bitch that of their five skaters, three were 'reserves'.  So, we were outnumbered with fill-ins.  Still, it was a good game and I was proud of my team at the end.

Wayne and Nancy came along to watch and between them caught much of my game on video.

One of the first things I noticed when watching the video was how long some of our shifts were.  For example, my first shift is over five minutes long!  That's the price paid on a short roster.  The other thing to notice is how, even in the first half, the game was quite gritty.  I'm busy trying to take position, poke checking, harassing their star forward in the shot, clearing the oppo from the goal crease - all things I'd been drilled in at Knights training on Wednesday.  The best thing about the first half from our team's perspective was probably Tasha's two goals, of which you see the first on the video.  This was her first goal in competitive inline and a special moment for us all.  Pity we didn't back it up with more than we did.  Score line was 3-2 at half time, their way.

The second half was more of the same, only more so.  We scored first, with a resultant sense of 'we can do this' the consequence.  Within a couple minutes, however, they had reinstated their one goal lead and never looked back from there.  Even when Donna was given a minor penalty for slashing, they still managed to score a shorthanded goal.  I remember coming out on the next shift change, thinking that we really need to step it up, 6 goals against is no worse than 5 when it comes down to it, but we need to be more aggressive to have any chance.  It didn't work, even though the game perversely became more fluid as the players grew more exhausted.  Merrilyn gave her all, and the rest of us weren't far behind in the exhaustion stakes by game's end.  Result, Shufflers 6 Wheelers 3.

About nine minutes into the video of the second half is a sequence of play which was fairly typical, starting with me putting a breaking shot towards the goal, battling for but losing the puck on the backboards before regaining possession and a play culminating with Merrilyn putting one on net.  We might have only had 16 shots ON net in the game (compared to their official tally of 25), but we put a lot of shots AT the net, many of them pretty high quality in every way except accuracy.  I guess some nights are like that!

The scariest moment was in my second shift in the first half when I went down and the knee went sore on me.  You can see how I hobbled off on the video.

The thing I'll most remember about the game, though, was its intensely competitive nature.  Harassing their players in the slot or crease, stick checking, board play (where I need to lead with my leg/body instead of just my stick), sweeping north south play, utter exhaustion from the long shifts, and for me - the power and confidence behind my newly worked on strong shot.  Now I need to work on the accuracy...

As you'll have seen, I buggered most if not all the faceoffs that I took, did fairly well in my defensive role, didn't protect the puck overly well once I had it though.  The shots were good and strong but generally wide.  I was on the rink for two of our goals and three of theirs.  No points for me on the evening.

GP 5 G 5 A 3 Pts 8 +5 1/2/2